Hasina arrested under compulsion of law: Mainul

FE Team | Published: July 17, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
Law and Justice adviser Barrister Mainul Hosein said Monday the arrest of Awami League chief and former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was required under the country's existing law to facilitate submission of chargesheet against her in a specific extortion case.
"It was a compulsion of law. If she (Hasina) was not shown arrested, the chargesheet could not be submitted against her," Mainul told a press briefing at his the secretariat.
Although Hasina is facing a total of 13 separate charges, she has been arrested in a case relating to extortion of money worth nearly Tk 29.90-million, he said.
The case was filed with the Gulshan thana by the Eastcoast Trading Limited managing director Azam J Chowdhury, the adviser added.
He also said Hasina was arrested only after the completion of proper investigations into the extortion case.
"According to information that I've collected so far, the plaintiff, Azam J Chowdhury, made payments of over Tk 29.90 million to Sheikh Selim through eight separate cheques as extortion money in connection with Siddhirgonj power project." Mainul said.
Selim, who is also a cousin of Sheikh Hasian, had made his confessional statement to the investigation officials, saying that he (Selim) received such extortion money and reach a portion of it to Hasina at Ganabhaban, he added.
Hasina, according to the existing law, was produced before the court within 24 hours of her arrest on Monday. But the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court sent her to jail rejecting her bail prayer, the adviser observed.
Despite the fact that a state of emergency is prevailing in the country, such cases will be settled through the country's existing law of the land, he said.
Responding to a query, Mainul said the said extortion case was not filed by the government, but by an individual.
Replying to another question whether or not the arrest of Hasina could create a law and order situation in the country, the law adviser said, "Law will take its own course."
He also added: "We have no political ambition. The main purpose of the present government is to facilitate establishment of honest politics in the country."
Now, time has come to bring those, who have looted people's property, to justice, he observed.