A metropolitan magistrate court in Dhaka on Wednesday allowed the police to take detained Enayet Karim Chowdhury, a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin, in custody for two more days for interrogation in a case filed with Ramna police station under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Metropolitan magistrate Saraha Farzana Haque passed the order responding to a petition filed by detective branch inspector, Aktar Morshed, also the investigation officer in the case, seeking the court鈥檚 permission to take him in custody for seven more days for interrogation.
Morshed produced Enayet before the court on Wednesday on completion of his two-day remand.
The police petition said that they needed to interrogate him more to trace other suspects involved in the conspiracy to oust the interim government.
On Monday, another court allowed the police to take Enayet in custody for two days for interrogation in the case.
It was reported that Enayet, facing interrogation by the police, told the interrogators that a senior police officer went to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka to receive Enayet Karim while a DIG-rank officer assigned his own bodyguard, who is a member of the police, for Enayet鈥檚 security.
After arriving in Bangladesh from the United States on September 6, Enayet stayed for two days at a five-star hotel in Dhaka.
The booking and payment were arranged by Kazi Mamunur Rashid, who introduced himself as the secretary-general of the Raushan-led faction of the Jatiya Party, he also told the police officials.
Sub-inspector Azizul Hakim filed the case against 55-year-old Enayet on September 14, 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.
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.
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.
