2 ex-army officers remanded for 4 days

 
A Dhaka court on Monday placed two retired army officers on a four-day remand in a case involving allegations of sedition, illegal financing, activities of a banned organisation and the circulation of provocative content on social media.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Didarul Alam passed the order in the evening after Inspector Sheikh Bashir Ahmed of the Detective Branch’s Cyber and Special Crime Division, the investigation officer, sought a seven-day remand.

The accused are retired Lieutenant Kazi Gulshan Ara, 43, and retired Lieutenant Colonel Debashish, 47.

Seeking remand, the state prosecutor alleged that the two officers had links with several anti-government groups and maintained communications with former army chief General Aziz Ahmed and a former home minister.

He claimed the contacts were intended to facilitate the political rehabilitation of the Awami League. Preliminary investigations had also indicated possible links with domestic and foreign intelligence operatives, he told the court, arguing that the accused needed to be interrogated for seven days.

The defence lawyers opposed the remand plea, arguing that the allegations lacked specific evidence of a conspiracy against the state and largely referred to social media pages that could be operated by anyone. They also informed the court that the accused had filed bail petitions.

Counsel for Gulshan Ara told the court that she was physically unfit and should not be sent to remand.

According to court sources, the case was filed with Pallabi Police Station under several provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Cyber Security Ordinance.