Mufti Mohammad Mohebbullah Miyaji, the khatib of Tongi T&T Bazar Jame Mosque, told a metropolitan magistrate court in Gazipur on Tuesday that he was not abducted by anyone and that he himself went to Panchagarh willingly.
Mohebbullah, who had earlier claimed to have been abducted, told the metropolitan magistrate, Zubair Rashid, that he left Gazipur on his own due to physical illness and mental stress, court officials said.
After the court hearing, Mohebbullah was placed in police custody and was later handed over to his family, the police and court officials said.
Mohebbullah had gone missing on October 22 after going out for a morning walk.
On October 23, local residents in Panchagarh reportedly found him in chains and alerted the national emergency number 999.
Later, his family alleged that four to five unidentified men had abducted him in an ambulance, blindfolded him with a black cloth, and subjected him to physical assault, leading to a case filed with Tongi East police station on October 24.
News of the alleged abduction sparked criticism as followers of the khatib and several Islamist groups had accused ISKCON of abducting him after his disappearance.
Meanwhile, Gazipur Metropolitan Police’s additional police commissioner for crime and operations, Mohammad Taherul Haque Chowhan, at a press briefing on Tuesday, said that Mohebbullah went to Panchagarh on his own due to personal and mental reasons.
The investigations found no evidence of any ambulance movement that morning.
CCTV footage showed Mohebbullah leaving his home alone, walking past several landmarks, travelling by an auto-rickshaw to Bhogra Bypass, and later boarding a Shyamoli Paribahan bus to Panchagarh.
The law enforcement agencies were investigating whether any other person or group influenced him or if he acted on his own, said the police.
