Plot to kill Joy: Mahmudur Rahman sent to jail after surrender

Mahmudur Rahman, acting editor of the daily Amar Desh, was sent to jail today after his surrender before a Dhaka court in a case filed for plotting to abduct and kill Sajeeb Wazed Joy, son of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

On August 17 last year, a court sentenced him to seven years' rigorous imprisonment in his absence.

Mahmudur Rahman returned to the country on Friday morning after spending over five and a half years in exile.

Today, Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Md Mahbubul Haque ordered to send him to jail around 11:15am, after Mahmudur surrendered before it through his lawyer, seeking bail in the case.

According to the lawyers, the court concerned has jurisdiction to grant bail to any accused, who is jailed for one year in any case. As Mahmudur Rahman was jailed for seven years, it has no jurisdiction to grant him bail.

Senior journalist Shafik Rehman, Jatiyatabadi Samajik Sangskritik Sangstha Vice-President Mohammad Ullah Mamun, his son Rizvi Ahmed Caesar, and US-based businessman Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan were also jailed for seven years in their absence in the case.

The court also fined each of them Tk 5,000, in default of which, they will have to serve for an additional three months in prison.

During the trial, the court recorded statements of Joy and 11 other prosecution witnesses.

After the case was filed on August 3, 2015, by the Detective Branch of police, Shafik Rehman and Mahmudur were arrested.

The DB pressed charges against the accused on February 20, 2018, mentioning Shafik and Mahmudur as the masterminds.

Mamun aided and abetted the accused, the charge sheet added. Rizvi collected information on Joy from the FBI and gave it to the others.

According to the complaint, Mamun and several top leaders of the BNP and its allies met in the UK, the US and different places in Bangladesh before September 2012 and plotted to abduct and kill Joy, the then ICT adviser to former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

In a Facebook post on March 9, 2015, Joy accused BNP leaders of conspiring to abduct and kill him.