The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Dhaka on Monday allowed the police to take detained Enayet Karim Chowdhury, a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin, in custody for two days for interrogation in a case filed with Ramna police station under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate Atiqur Rahman passed the order, responding to a petition submitted by the investigation officer of the case and detective branch inspector, Aktar Morshed, seeking the court鈥檚 permission to take Enayet in custody for 10 days.
Enayet was produced before the court during the hearing on the petition that said that they needed to interrogate him to trace other suspects involved in the conspiracy to oust the interim government.
Sub-inspector Azizul Hakim filed the case against 55-year-old Enayet on Sunday, a day after he was arrested at Minto Road in Dhaka under section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for his suspicious movements and alleged conspiracy to overthrow the interim government.
Additional public prosecutor Muhammad Shamsuddoh Suman argued in favour of the police petition and Enayet鈥檚 lawyer, Farhan Md Arif, argued for his client鈥檚 innocence and sought his bail.
The court rejected Enayet鈥檚 bail plea.
During his arrest on September 13, the police seized a sports utility vehicle that he had been using and two iPhones from his possession.
The suspect was 鈥榚ngaged in efforts to destabilise public security and sovereignty by acting as an agent of a foreign intelligence service to overthrow the Bangladesh interim government, said the case statement.
It said that Enayet, son of Abdul Karim Chowdhury, was born in Bangladesh but had been residing in New York in the United States. He now stays in the Gulshan-2 area in Dhaka.
During preliminary interrogation after his arrest, Enayet informed the police that he was a contract-based agent of a foreign intelligence agency, the case statement said.
It also stated that he held several secret meetings with senior government policymakers, influential political leaders, and business figures in recent days.
He also acknowledged that he had been gathering intelligence on the current political situation, key officials, and different political party leaders, which he was passing on to his controlling intelligence agency, it said.
Enayet provided his American passport to the police and said that he migrated to the US in 1988 and received US citizenship in 2004 but he had neither a Bangladeshi passport nor a national identity card, said the case statement.
