FROM PAGE 1

attempts to arrest him had failed beforehand.

Replying to a query on the allegations regarding alleged illegal wealth of Masud, the DB officer said the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Criminal Investigation Department were investigating multiple complaints against him on these allegations.

Masud was general officer commanding (GOC) of 9 Infantry Division at Savar when a state of emergency was declared across the country on January 11, 2007. The same year, he was made chief coordinator of the National Coordination Committee on Serious Crimes and Corruption and shortly afterwards promoted to the position of lieutenant general. On June 2, 2008, he was appointed to the National Defence College, and in less than a week, he was assigned to the Bangladesh High Commission in Canberra.

The coordination committee, led by military officers, detained and interrogated prominent politicians and business figures, bringing corruption charges against them. Many of them alleged that they were tortured in custody.

Masud became an MP from Feni-3 in 2018, and then again in the January 2024 election boycotted by the BNP and many other parties. Rivals from the then ruling Awami League fought their own party candidates in the election, who were widely called dummy candidates.

Regarding allegations of torturing political leaders during the army-backed caretaker government, DB’s Shafiqul said the law enforcers were focusing on specific cases which are under investigation.

However, he emphasised that no offender will be spared and urged victims to seek legal recourse if they have been affected.

Masud was escorted to a packed courtroom of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court amid tight security. When he was being taken back to the court lockup after the hearing, a group chanted slogans against him. Some of them were seen throwing eggs towards him.

During the hearing, Dhaka Metropolitan Public Prosecutor Omar Faruq Faruqi alleged that Masud had tried to kill BNP leader Tarique Rahman, currently the prime minister, through torture.

He accused Masud of introducing harassment, torture and crippling of political leaders, and the “Minus-Two Formula” -- an alleged conspiracy to drive out then BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina from politics.

Masud, in cahoots with one side, led a “blueprint to destroy and eliminate Khaleda and her family”, Faruqi said.

The prosecutor also alleged that Masud and his accomplices collected, embezzled and laundered abroad thousands of crores of taka by promising pardon to those who would confess to their crimes.

“After the 1/11 changeover, there was hardly any businessman in Bangladesh whom they did not detain and extort money from. And Masud was the mastermind behind all this,” Faruqi further said.

Defence counsel Morshed told the court that the allegations against Masud were “fabricated”. He also pleaded Masud’s bail on the grounds of his age, which he claimed was 80, and different diseases.