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Samrat victim of political
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demanded his immediate release and proper treatment.
“My son is innocent. He is very sick. Please show mercy, release him and arrange better treatment for him,’’ his 80-year-old mother Sayera Khatun Chowdhury appealed to the prime minister in a feeble voice at a press conference in Dhaka Reporters Unity.
On October 6, Rab arrested former Jubo League south president Samrat, an alleged kingpin of Casino business, in Cumilla amid the ongoing crackdown on the casino and other illegal business.
Following a search at his Kakrail office later in the day, Rab at a press briefing said it seized two devices used for torturing people, a pistol with five bullets, two Kangaroo hides, 1,160 yaba tablets and 19 bottles of foreign liquor from there.
Later, a Rab mobile court sentenced Samrat to six months in jail for possessing wild animal hides and another six months for possessing liquor.
Two days later, he was admitted to a city hospital as he complained of chest pain. But he taken back to jail on Saturday.
“Samrat is your worker. He is like your son. As a mother, I am requesting you to forgive his faults and mistakes,” said Samrat’s sister Farhana Chowdhury while reading out a statement on behalf of her mother.
“Samrat underwent an open-heart surgery in 1999. He is working for the party even though he has been ill since then,” she said, adding, “He is not an infiltrator into the party.”
The family gave a detailed account of Samrat’s involvement in the Awami League politics and his role in anti-autocracy movement and torment he went through “during the BNP regime in 1991.”
“He is the ideal soldier of the Father of the Nation,” Samrat’s sister said.
“Samrat had not been at his office for 10 days before his arrest. His office was unguarded. There was no liquor, yaba pills and pistol in the office. We suspect it is nothing but a part of a staged drama,” the mother alleged.
The family claimed that Rab did not get any drugs from where Samrat was arrested. He was taken to his Kakrail office in the capital where law enforcers searched his office for over four hours, but no journalist was allowed to the office during the search.
“During live telecast [from outside], they saw some law enforcers entering the office with bags on their back. Those could not be noticed when they were coming out,” she alleged.
The family refuted the allegations of his addiction to alcohol and involvement with any club where casino business was going on.
In reply to various allegations of journalists against Samrat, his brother Resell Ahmed Chowdhury requested them not to ask any such question.
He claimed that his brother did not amass any property illegally.

BNP leader
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about intelligence and law enforcement agencies by email”.
Rapid Action Battalion after arresting him handed him over to police, said Nazrul Islam, officer-in-charge of Pallabi Police Station.
Sub-inspector Abu Saied of Rab-4 filed the case accusing Hafiz and Col (retd) Ishaq Mian, the chief of BNP Chairperson’s Security Force, with the police station.
Col Ishaq was arrested the same day and remanded for seven days.
In the case statement, SI Abu Saied said Col Ishaq sent an email to an unidentified person named Hiren Mukharjee on May 2 this year, in which he gave “false, misleading, fabricated, and ill-motivated information” on the role of law enforcers, administration, and intelligence agencies in the December 30 national election.
“Through his activities, he tried to undermine law and order by creating instability and tarnishing the country’s image,” the statement read.
It was also stated that his activities were part of an ill-attempt to destablise the country by creating chaos in the armed forces.
During interrogation, Col Ishaq told Rab that Maj Hafiz, one barrister M Sarwar Hossain and some unnamed people were involved, according to the statement.
Yesterday, Sub-inspector Nure Alam of Pallabi Police Station, also investigation officer of the case, produced Maj Hafiz before the court and sought a seven-day remand.
In the remand prayer, the officer said Maj Hafiz should be interrogated to unearth the mystery behind the incident and know the whereabouts of accused on the run.
The court rejected the prayer after defense lawyers argued for bail and said their client was not involved in the incident.