Staff Reporter :A Dhaka Court placed Mahmudur Rahman Manna, Convener of Nagorik Oikya, on a 10-day remand in a case filed against him allegedly for trying to instigate the Army against the government.Metropolitan Magistrate Mahbubur Rahman of Dhaka passed the order after Manna was produced before his Court on Wednesday. Manna remained traceless for nearly 21 hours after he was picked up by ‘plainclothes men’ from his niece’s house at Banani in the capital during the small hours of Tuesday. The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) confirmed the arrest of Manna and handed him over to Gulshan Police Station on Tuesday midnight.RAB claimed that he was picked up by a team of the elite force from the capital’s Dhanmondi area around 10:30pm on Monday after his telephonic conversations were leaked and created massive controversy. Manna was shown arrested in the case filed against him by Sub-Inspector Sohel Rana of Gulshan Police Station. “RAB arrested Mahmudur Rahman Manna and handed him over to Gulshan police,” Director Media and Legal Wing of RAB headquarters Commander Mufti Mahmud Khan told media. Nurul Amin, Assistant Commissioner of Police of Gulshan Circle, told the media that RAB handed over Manna to Gulshan police station on Tuesday midnight. Thereafter, he was handed over to Detective Branch (DB) of Police for interrogation. On Wednesday afternoon, Manna was produced in a Dhaka Court by the Gulshan police with a 10-day remand plea on the charge of instigating the Army against the government.Following the plea from Abdul Barek, a Sub-Inspector of Gulshan Police Station and the Investigation Officer (IO) of the case, the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mahbubur Rahman granted the remand.The court rejected his bail prayer submitted by Manna’s counsels on his behalf. Earlier in the morning, Monirul Islam, Joint-Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) in a press briefing said, “We will seek permission from the home ministry to file a sedition case against him (Manna).”He also said that DB police were still scrutinising the leaked conversations and trying to determine if there were anything provocative or punishable offense.Manna’s two telephonic conversations were made available on the internet on Monday by a number of online news portals. One of them was with senior BNP leader and ex-Dhaka Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, who is now in the US, and the other with an unknown person. After the conversations got leaked, Manna expressed fears that he might be arrested anytime. He, therefore, took shelter at his relative’s house in Banani, Dhaka wherefrom he was picked up by plainclothes men, claimed Manna’s wife Meher Nigar.She told the media that a group of plainclothes men introducing themselves as the members of law enforcing agencies picked up Manna one of her relatives’ house at Banani at 3.30am on Tuesday. Since then, the Nagorik Oikya leader had remained missing as the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), Banani Police Satiation and RAB denied detaining Manna.A police officer at Gulshan Police Station said that Sohel Rana filed a case under section 131 of the Penal Code against Manna and an unidentified person with the police station. “Whoever abets the committing of mutiny by an officer, soldier…or attempts to seduce any such officer, soldier, sailor or airman from his allegiance or his duty, shall be punished with (imprisonment) for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine,” said the Section of the Penal Code. The officer however declined to make any comment about whereabouts of Manna before he was handed over to police.
