Nagorik Oikya convener Mahmudur Rahman Manna has been missing since alleged detective police men picked up him from a relative's home in the city early on Tuesday
A group of plainclothes men, who introduced themselves as detectives, picked up Mahmudur Rahman Manna from his relative's house at Banani in the capital in the early hours of Tuesday.
The Detective Branch of police, however denied detaining Manna following leaking of his two audio clips that created quite a stir in the country's media.
"Some plainclothes men introducing themselves as DB police picked up Manna at around 3:00am," Manna's niece Shahnama Sharmin said.
"A group of people knocked at the door and they said uncle would be taken to DB headquarters, she told reporters when they visited her house on Road 17/A in Block-E from where Manna was picked up.
While leaving the place around 3:30am, the plainclothesmen told the house inmates that they would take Manna to their office, she added.
Manna's wife Meher Nigar said DB personnel picked up her husband around 3:30am.
However, Joint Commissioner of DMP DB Monirul Islam said they did not have any information regarding Manna's detention.
He said: "No unit of DMP detained Manna."
The detectives are now investigating Manna's phone conversations with BNP leader Sadeque Hossain Khoka and an unnamed person that had become public Sunday night, the DB official said.
"If we find the conversation genuine and provocative, we will arrest him as per the legal procedures," Mr Islam said.
The arrest came after Manna told a private television channel that he might be arrested.
"We will try to find out his whereabouts," Manna's wife Meher Nigar told reporters.
Meanwhile, she filed a writ petition on Tuesday seeking a directive on the government and the police to produce Nagarik Oikya convener Mahmudur Rahman Manna before the High Court immediately.
In the petition, she said, on information of the arrest, she went to Banani and Gulshan police stations to know the whereabouts of her husband but both denied the arrest.
The petitioner also sought directives on the home secretary, inspector general of police, Rapid Action Battalion director general and officers-in-charge of Banani and Gulshan police stations to explain why they should not be directed to produce Manna before the High Court and why his detention would not be declared illegal.
The HC bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Md Ashraful Kamal is likely to hear the petition on Wednesday, said deputy attorney general Motahar Hossain Sazu.
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