Ex-ASP accused of abducting Sayeedi case witness sent to jail over enforced disappearance

A Dhaka court today (3 July) ordered former assistant superintendent of police (ASP) Fazlur Rahman to be sent to jail in connection with the alleged enforced disappearance of Sukh Ranjan Bali, who went missing in 2012 after arriving at the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) to testify for Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delawar Hossain Sayeedi.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mahbub Alam passed the order after a hearing, according to court sources.

Fazlur Rahman was arrested by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Detective Branch (DB) from his residence in the capital last night.

ICT Investigation Agency officer Md Helalul Islam produced the accused before the court and sought an order to keep him in custody until the investigation is completed. The court granted the plea and ordered him to jail. The accused was not present inside the courtroom during the hearing.

According to the investigation agency's application, around 9:30am on 5 November 2012, Sukh Ranjan arrived at the main gate of the old High Court building – where the ICT was then located – accompanied by his lawyer to testify on behalf of Sayeedi. As soon as their vehicle stopped, plainclothes personnel allegedly dragged him out and forced him into a white double-cabin pickup.

The application alleges that Sukh Ranjan was blindfolded, tortured and held in a secret detention centre for about two months before being taken across the border into India. He was later held at Dum Dum Central Correctional Home for five years before his son, Apurba Bali, secured his release on bail after Indian media reported the case.

Investigators said evidence collected so far indicates that Fazlur Rahman, accompanied by other DB officers and personnel, forcibly picked up Bali from outside the tribunal premises and took him to the DB office in Dhaka before he was allegedly sent across the border.

At the time, law enforcement agencies claimed he had been found near the border, but his family and human rights organisations alleged that he had been abducted from the tribunal premises, triggering widespread controversy.

Following the fall of the Awami League government on 5 August 2024, Sukh Ranjan filed a complaint with the ICT prosecution on 21 August, alleging that he had been subjected to enforced disappearance and torture for refusing to testify against Sayeedi and later agreeing to testify in his defence.

The complaint named 32 individuals as accused, including former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, former chief justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, former ICT chairman Justice Nizamul Huq Nasim, former law minister Shafique Ahmed, former state minister for law Kamrul Islam, former ICT judge Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, former investigation officer Helal Uddin and former Pirojpur-1 MP AKM Awal, along with 10 to 15 unidentified persons.