4 associates of 'Jubo Dal leader' Moin get four-day remand in extortion case
The accused sent on remand are Md Faruk Hossain Sumon, 42, Md Liton Mia, 38, Md Falan Mia, 42 and Md Rubel, 42.
A Dhaka court has placed four suspected associates of arrested Moin Uddin Moin, who claimed to be a Jubo Dal leader, on a four-day remand in a case filed with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station over alleged extortion demand at Center for Kidney Diseases and Urology (CKD) hospital in the capital's Shyamoli area.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Ariful Islam passed the order this afternoon (13 April) following a hearing.
The accused sent on remand are Md Faruk Hossain Sumon, 42, Md Liton Mia, 38, Md Falan Mia, 42 and Md Rubel, 42.
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Earlier, the investigation officer of the case, Sub-Inspector Md Sabbir Ahmed of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station, produced the accused before the court and sought a seven-day remand.
According to the remand petition, evidence and information have been found linking the accused to the incident and the investigation is ongoing.
It said the accused have been giving inconsistent statements during police custody and are not confessing the actual events when questioned about the case and absconding unnamed accused.
It added that remand is necessary to uncover the mystery of the incident, identify and arrest absconding and unnamed accused, and determine the identities of planners and instigators.
Defence lawyer Kazi Akramul Huda (Sumon) sought cancellation of the remand, while state lawyer Omar Faruk Faruqui opposed it.
During the hearing, the state lawyer said the hospital has been providing treatment to people free of cost and more than 2,500 people receive services there.
He said the accused have been demanding extortion, adding that such demands at a social institution are unacceptable and have created a negative reaction across the country. He argued that a seven-day remand was necessary to identify those involved through interrogation.
On the other hand, the defence lawyer said the accused were not involved in the incident, adding that some of them are egg traders while others are rickshaw or vehicle drivers, alleging that they have been implicated to shield the main accused and sought bail after cancellation of the remand.
After hearing both sides, the court granted a four-day remand for each of the accused.
On 11 April, a case was filed against Moin as the prime accused over allegations of extortion at the CKD hospital in Shyamoli.
The case was filed by the hospital's operation theatre in-charge Md Abu Hanif.
According to the case statement, Moin and his associates had long been demanding Tk5 lakh, and when the complainant failed to pay, they issued threats.
On the morning of 10 April, they allegedly went to the complainant's residence on Road 3 in Shyamoli under Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station, demanded the money from his wife and threatened harm if it was not paid, behaving in an unruly manner when she refused.
The complaint further stated that the complainant, who was in another room at the time, called his younger brother Md Monir Talukdar, 35, who was at the hospital, to come home fearing escalation. When he arrived, Moin and seven to eight unnamed individuals allegedly attempted to present the situation differently and began gathering more people.
At one stage, they reportedly assembled around 50 to 60 people and went in front of the CKD hospital, attempting to create disorder. They allegedly engaged in unruly behaviour, chanted slogans loudly, used abusive language and tried to destabilise the situation.
They also allegedly chanted threatening slogans against the hospital owner Md Kamrul Islam and attempted to create chaos in front of the emergency department, raising concerns about disruption to normal hospital operations.
