Rizvi on three-day remand in arson case

A Dhaka court placed BNP joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on a three-day remand on Sunday in an arson case filed with Badda Police Station, report agencies.

Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Alamgir Kabir Raj passed the order when Mosharraf Hossain, a sub-inspector of Badda Police Station, and also the investigation officer of the case, produced him before the court with a 10-day remand prayer.

The court also turned down a bail petition filed by Rizvi's counsel Sanaullah Miah.

On January 26, miscreants set a bus of 'Anabil Paribahan' alight on Badda Link Road in the city amid the countrywide nonstop blockade sponsored by the BNP-led 20-party alliance.

Jamirudddin, supervisor of Anabil Paribahan, filed a case against 28 identified, including Ruhul Kabir Rizvi and ex-MP MA Kaiyum, and 20-15 unidentified people in this connection.

Later, members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) picked up BNP leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi from a house at Baridhara in the city early Saturday.

Amid tension over programmes marking the first anniversary of the last general election on January 5, police had taken Rizvi to a hospital when he fell 'ill' at the party's Naya Paltan headquarters on January 3.

He sneaked out of the hospital four days later and had since then been issuing the alliance's statements from undisclosed places.