Staff Reporter :
Police have been granted 10 days to grill Ismail Chowdhury Samrat, the expelled chief of Jubo League, Dhaka South, in two separate cases involving illegal arms and drugs.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammed Tofazzal Hossain issued the remand order on Tuesday.
Mahfuzul Huq Bhuiyan, Inspector of Ramna Police Station and also Investigation Officer (IO) of the cases, sought a 10-day remand in a case filed for possession drugs, when Samrat was produced before the court around 1:00pm.
Mohammad Jahirul Islam, Inspector (Investigation) of the same police station, also sought 10-day remand for the drug case.
His associate Enamul Hoque Arman has been placed on a five-day remand in an arms-related case.
Meanwhile, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s court in Old Dhaka and its surrounding areas were plastered all over with posters demanding Samrat’s release.
Activists of Jubo League and Samrat’s supporters also gathered around the court premises and were chanting slogans claiming their leader’s innocence.
They were seen demonstrating under the banner of “Ismail Hossain Samrat Mukti Parishad” till 1:40pm when the report was filed.
The controversial Jubo League leader reportedly went into hiding after the Rapid Action Battalion busted several illegal casino operations inside clubs in Motijheel on September 18.
He was later arrested along with his close aide Arman by the elite police unit in Cumilla’s Chauddagram on October 6 over alleged ties to the casino business in the capital.
The RAB later conducted a five-hour raid on Samrat’s office in Kakrail’s Bhuiyan Trade Centre with him in tow.
They subsequently recovered a foreign pistol, 1,160 Yaba tablets, 19 bottles of foreign liquor, two kangaroo hides and ‘electrical torture equipment’.
A mobile court handed Samrat a six-month prison sentence for possession of the kangaroo skins under the Wild Animal Protection Act and he was later sent to the Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj.
Two cases were also filed against him under the Narcotics Control Act and Arms Act with the Ramna Police Station. But the police’s plea for a 20-day remand to grill Samrat in the cases was stayed after he was hospitalised for chest pains.
He was again sent back to jail after being released from the hospital on Saturday.
