A metropolitan magistrate court in Dhaka on Friday allowed the police to take former housing and public works minister RAM Obaidul Muktadir Chowdhury for five days in custody for interrogation in a murder case.
The Rapid Action Battalion, on the other hand, arrested former Teknaf upazila chairman Jafor Ahmed at Basabo in the capital early Friday.
Court officials said that Dhaka metropolitan magistrate Mehera Mahbub, responding to a police petition seeking the court鈥檚 permission to take RAM Obaidul Muktadir Chowdhury in custody for interrogation in the case of killing Bangladesh Nationalist Party activist Mokbul Hossain in 2022, allowed the police to take the former minister in custody for five days.
The police arrested Obaidul Muktadir Chowdhury, a former Awami League lawmaker for Brahmanbaria-3, at Shewrapara in the capital minutes after 11:45pm on Thursday.
He became a cabinet member of the Sheikh Hasina regime after contesting in the controversial 12th national election held on January 7.
According to the case documents, the BNP called a rally for December 10, 2022 in front of the party central office at Naya Paltan in Dhaka.
The police and AL activists, however, attacked the BNP activists in front of BNP central office at Naya Paltan on December 7.
They entered the BNP office, charged batons and opened fire at the BNP men, injuring Mokbul critically.
Mokbul succumbed to his injuries later.
On September 30, 2024, a case was filed against 256 people, including ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina with the Paltan police station.
Rapid Action Battalion鈥檚 media and legal wing director lieutenant colonel Munim Ferdous said that they arrested former Teknaf upazila chairman Jafor Ahmed at the capital鈥檚 Basabo area at about 3:00am on Friday.
According to RAB, Jafor is a home ministry-listed top criminal and drug peddler.
