Ex-Press Club president Shaukat Mahmood sent to jail

Bangla Press Desk:  A Dhaka court on Monday sent Shaukat Mahmood, former president of the Jatiya Press Club and secretary general of the Janata Party Bangladesh, to jail in a case filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act with Shahbagh Police Station.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Jewel Rana passed the order following a hearing and set 11 December for the remand hearing.Earlier, the investigating officer of the case, Inspector Md Akhter Morshed of the Ramna Zonal Team of the DB police, filed two separate petitions seeking Shaukat’s custody and a 10-day remand.

On Sunday, detectives apprehended Shaukat in the capital's Malibagh area. He was arrested in a case filed over an alleged plot to “overthrow the government,” in which Bangladeshi-origin US citizen Enayet Karim Chowdhury was also arrested.

According to the case documents, Enayet is accused of plotting a conspiracy to overthrow the interim government and acting as an agent of a foreign intelligence agency.

He was detained by police on 13 September under Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in Dhaka's Minto Road. He was later produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court and sent to jail.

Two iPhones were seized from him, which allegedly contained information about conspiracies against the Bangladesh government. 

During interrogation, Enayet reportedly admitted that he is a Bangladeshi-origin US citizen and a contractual agent of a foreign intelligence agency.

BP/SP