A Dhaka court on Friday ordered former assistant superintendent of police (ASP) Fazlur Rahman to be sent to jail in connection with the alleged enforced disappearance of Sukhranjan Bali, who went missing in 2012 after arriving at the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT).
The enforced disappearance occurred while Sukhranjan, a resident of Pirojpur, was on his way to provide defence testimony for Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, in a case for crimes against humanity, on 5 November 2012.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mahbub Alam passed the order for sending Fazlur Rahman to jail after a hearing, according to court sources.
Earlier on Thursday night, the Cyber Crime Unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s (DMP) Detective Branch (DB) arrested Fazlur Rahman for his alleged involvement in the abduction of Sukhranjan Bali, said DB Additional Commissioner Shafiqul Islam.
ICT Investigation Agency officer Md Helalul Islam produced accused Fazlur Rahman 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.
According to the investigation agency’s application, around 9:30am on 5 November 2012, Sukhranjan accompanied by his lawyer arrived at the main gate of the old High Court building – where the ICT was then located – to provide defense testimony in the case for crimes against humanity filed against Sayeedi.
As soon as their vehicle stopped, plainclothes personnel allegedly dragged Sukhranjan out and forced him into a white double-cabin pickup.
The application alleges that Sukhranjan 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, Sukhranjan filed a complaint with the ICT prosecution, 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 people as accused, including the then 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 ATM Fazle Kabir, former investigation officer Helal Uddin and former Pirojpur-1 MP AKM Awal, along with 10 to 15 unidentified persons.
