Court order on Tuesday on plea by accused in Saif Ali Khan attack case
Mumbai, May 12 (UNI) A local court at Bandra is set to pass an order on Tuesday on a plea moved by the Bangladeshi national accused of breaking into actor Saif Ali Khan's home and stabbing him.
The accused has sought immediate release from jail, claiming that the police did not give him in writing the grounds for his arrest, which is mandatory, before apprehending him.
In a plea filed before the metropolitan magistrate court in Bandra last week, Mohammad Shariful Islam Shehzad, 30, stated that his arrest was illegal and was in violation of section 47 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). The section mandates that a police officer arresting any person without a warrant should communicate full particulars of the offence for which an accused is being arrested or reveal other grounds for an arrest.
The accused has cited various Supreme Court and high court orders holding that the law mandates furnishing the reasons and grounds of arrest to the accused before apprehending him, and that not complying with this mandatory requirement renders the arrest illegal.
In one of the judgments mentioned in the plea, the Supreme Court held that police officers must furnish the grounds of arrest to the accused persons in writing. This should be done to avoid situations arising out of conflicting claims and to enable the accused to get an opportunity to defend himself during the remand hearing, the top court said.
It also held that subsequent remand orders and the filing of the chargesheet in the case would not cure the defect.
Earlier the accused had withdrawn the bail plea moved in the sessions court. Later he approached the Bandra magistrate court with this application claiming that his arrest was illegal.
Two months back, the police filed a chargesheet running into more than 1,000-pages which includes crucial forensic evidence that allegedly links the suspect to the attack.
Khan was repeatedly stabbed with a knife by the intruder inside his 12th floor apartment in upscale Bandra on January 16 this year.
The 54-year-old actor underwent an emergency surgery at the Lilavati Hospital.
He was discharged after five days. The accused was arrested by the police two days after the incident.
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Edited excerpts: How is the Awami League reacting to this indictment for ordering police to fire on protesters, resulting in several hundred deaths? Well, first of all, this is a state of irony in Bangladesh. The ICT was set up by the erstwhile Awami League to try collaborators of the 1971 Pakistani military regime. A good number were sentenced to death and executed. Now the tables have been turned, and this tribunal is trying Sheikh Hasina and members of the former government. The Awami League is in a very desperate situation. It's not organised at all, and there's no particular leadership that can give the people or the international community a public statement. This is in contrast to 1971, when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested, but there was a second tier of leadership which organised the liberation war with India's assistance. 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That should have been kept separate from cases of corruption and orders to police to fire on protesters. The interim government could have prosecuted individuals but leave the Awami League aside because it is a major party. Historically, every time the Awami League has been under pressure, it always bounced back because it had that set of leaders. As far as the present Awami League is concerned, the party is there but in scattered form. Many Awami League activists and leaders revere Sheikh Hasina largely because she happens to be the daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. But with the indictment, Sheikh Hasina could consult her party leaders and take steps to get in touch with other leaders and give them directives on how to reorganise the party and step away from it until this entire course of investigations comes to an end. People in Bangladesh—30 to 40 per cent—since the banning of the Awami League, citizens who never supported the Awami League are becoming sympathetic to it. If the Awami League is unbanned hypothetically and an election is held today, there's a good chance it will go back to power—maybe not with a vast majority, but in a coalition. The Chief Adviser, Muhammad Yunus, told his advisors last week that the Awami League is destabilising the country. Despite the ban, the interim government feels there is a threat from the Awami League. Is the army going to permit an election without the Awami League? Army chief General Wakar-Uz-Zaman has been saying there has to be an inclusive election before December. Some kind of subtle pressure is there from the army. When General Wakar-Uz-Zaman made it clear about two weeks ago that elections have to be held by December this year, Professor Yunus said he was thinking of resigning. The Yunus government came forth with the idea that elections will be held anywhere between December this year and June next year. The army has been playing a very subtle, very positive game. The army chief has gone on record saying that the values of the liberation war will not be sacrificed, and the rule of law will be maintained. Just the other day in Rangpur, when the former military leader General Hussain Muhammad Ershad's family home was being vandalised, the army moved in. The regional army commander summoned these student leaders in the middle of the night and warned them that this kind of vandalism will not be tolerated. If elections are held without the Awami League, they will not be credible at all—in the same way that elections under the Awami League government, when the BNP [Bangladesh Nationalist Party] did not take part, were never regarded as credible. The army is the only disciplined force in the country now. The army must insist that inclusivity means bringing the Awami League into the election. So the Awami League is looking to the army to bring it back into political life. The three chiefs were appointed by Sheikh Hasina—is there a feeling they owe this to her? I won't say they owe this to her. They owe this to the proper rules of governance under which they were appointed. But they're also loyal to the principles and values of the 1971 war of liberation. That sense of values is still working in them. Now if they see the trajectory the country is taking—the Jamaat-e-Islami has come back, militant Islamist organisations like Hizb ut-Tahrir are there, and there are reports of Pakistani military officials and ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan's external intelligence agency] officials coming to Bangladesh and trying to establish links with the Bangladesh government—these are very concerning things. The armed forces, I don't think they will take all these things lying down. You mentioned if elections were held today, the Awami League might return to power. But we hear the BNP believes it will sweep the elections—that's why they are eager for December elections. When I talked about the Awami League's prospects, there's a sympathy factor working, although not for its doings in the last government—the corruption is roundly condemned even by supporters. If elections are held, we do not feel the Awami League will win a straight majority, but it just might squeak through. The BNP is very confident it will win, but worried that the Jamaat-e-Islami is getting ahead of it. Since August last year, Jamaat has gone ahead. Jamaat has worked very quietly and softly, asking for local government elections first rather than general elections. The BNP is massively popular because it's been out of power for so many years and because of the repression exercised on it by the Awami League government. All political power in the party rests with Tarique Rahman [party chief Khaleda Zia's son], who has been in exile in the UK since 2007. The question many people ask is why Tarique Rahman has not been going back to Bangladesh. The interim government does not want him to return. An unwritten instruction is there because if he goes back today, that will create a huge wave of support for the BNP that the interim government will not be able to stem. Recently, Jamaat-e-Islami member A.T.M. Azharul Islam was released from prison. The head of Jamaat held a press conference saying the party apologised to the nation, but did not mention 1971 or collaboration with Pakistan Army. How is this being received? The people are not happy with this sort of statement from Jamaat. It is very ambiguous. When a party chief says, 'if we have made any mistake,' the question is not if mistakes were made. The historical record is there. All the old newspapers are there. I was there in 1971. I belong to a generation that was there. We saw what Jamaat did. If Jamaat is actually apologetic about 1971, it should come out with a clear statement saying: 'We made mistakes in 1971, we should not have supported the Pakistani military regime, and we respect the three million people of Bangladesh who died because of the Pakistani military regime and their local collaborators.' Young people who were born 15 or 20 years ago know the history of the country. You have to tell these people you're sorry. Condemning the Awami League for corruption is one thing. But history is something else, and Jamaat has to own up to it clearly and without ambiguity. There was talk of an army takeover. What are you hearing about the differences between the army and interim administration? The army is not happy. The army and the Yunus administration are not happy with each other because Yunus feels pressure from the army. The army feels nationwide pressure for elections and knows that unless there's an elected government, a constitutional government, things cannot go back to normal. I don't think the army is ready to take over. The Bangladesh Army remembers the periods when the army took charge and would not like to go back into that situation. What the army can do is ensure elections are held in good time, are inclusive, and ensure they are free, fair, and credible. This return to constitutional government is absolutely important because the people of Bangladesh have become tired of the kind of politics in the last 25-30 years. No political leader—either Begum Khalida Zia or Sheikh Hasina—has graduated to being a national leader. Not since Sheikh Mujibur Rahman have we had a national leader who could unite all people. 'If Sheikh Hasina is extradited to Bangladesh, justice will not be served. Student supporters of the interim government have made it clear that she will be brought back to Dhaka and hanged.' That is also the fear now: that if the BNP sweeps, there would not be a centrist opposition. It might be Jamaat or other extremist Islamist parties. The ideal situation would be first for the Awami League to be unbanned and permitted to take part. If the BNP sweeps the election, it will be back to square one. If Jamaat becomes the opposition in parliament, that will not be happy for the country. But if the Awami League is there and the BNP is there, and if people vote for either of these parties with the margin of difference very small, that is the kind of election we need. Since 1970, every time we've had an election, it's always been one party claiming the entire parliament for itself. If an election produces a result with no party gaining a majority, that will be extremely good for the country. That will force political parties to get into talks about forming a coalition. About the humanitarian corridor proposal from Bangladesh into Myanmar that reportedly caused army-administration differences: Given over a million Rohingya refugees and Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) activity in camps, why has this become such a big issue? This humanitarian corridor idea was sponsored by the interim government, especially by the National Security Advisor, Khalil-ur-Rahman. We have never had a National Security Advisor in Bangladesh. It was done without consultation with the Army. There's no guarantee, given Bangladesh's weak state politically, that elements of ARSA and the Arakan rebels will not take advantage to operate from within Bangladesh. If the humanitarian corridor is allowed, it might become a point where these Myanmar rebels might take advantage and Bangladesh might become a source of supply of arms—not just food and other items for Rohingya, but ammunition and weapons for rebels. When the army chief made it clear that the military will not allow any humanitarian corridor, he felt the pulse of the nation. On the pretext of this humanitarian corridor, it will be a point where militants, Islamic militants, will become even more active in trying to dislodge the administration within Bangladesh. Is there fear that Western foreign troops might use that corridor—for instance, the US military stationing itself there? That's a very valid concern. We are worried about American attention to islands like Saint Martin. American policy will clearly be aimed at helping Myanmar rebels with arms and ammunition routed through Bangladesh—that will impinge on Bangladesh's sovereignty. Secondly, to keep a check on India and China will place Bangladesh in a very difficult geopolitical situation. Also Read | India comments on treatment of Hindus in Bangladesh but must know its treatment of Muslims has repercussions: Debapriya Bhattacharya One theory after Sheikh Hasina's ouster was that the United States had a hand in it. When Sheikh Hasina mentioned that 'a white man' asked her about Saint Martin's Island, this theory got wings. Would India have allowed the US to burn down the house next door where India had so many stakes? It's obvious that elements in the United States, especially in the Democratic Party government, were never truly well disposed toward Sheikh Hasina. Under the Biden administration, there were indications they were not happy with Sheikh Hasina. She came up with the statement about 'a white man's proposal' regarding Saint Martin. We were surprised when she made that statement because she didn't go further. When Professor Yunus went to the UN last year, he met Bill Clinton and talked about the meticulous plan for the removal of Sheikh Hasina's government. That has led to questions—what was that meticulous plan? Whether India would have agreed to that, I don't think so. If the American government intends to intrude into Bangladesh territory on the excuse of helping Myanmar rebels, the Indian government will put its foot down. India will not accept this kind of intrusion by American interests in Bangladesh. The Chief Adviser went to China and made that controversial remark about inviting the Chinese to set up a trading zone with India's north-eastern states. There's now a high-powered Chinese delegation in Dhaka. What's the difference between Sheikh Hasina and Yunus regarding China? Hardly any difference. What the Yunus government has been doing is carrying forward Sheikh Hasina's policies vis-à-vis China. But we should be mindful that no matter how much closer we get to China, our focal point is India. We have traditionally maintained good relations with India in all spheres. As far as India is concerned, the Modi government should have done more in dealing with the crisis that erupted in Bangladesh in August 2024. What we certainly did not expect was the anarchy that would replace the fall of the Awami League government. For now, the Modi government should be able to interact with the Yunus government till the election. Certain measures such as closing land borders should be relaxed. If they are not relaxed, it's the people of Bangladesh who suffer and, to a certain extent, the people of India. At the end of the day, everything depends on how soon we can return Bangladesh to an elected government. If we have a strong government, a national government that reaches out to all people, it will give us an opportunity to forge a foreign policy which would benefit Bangladesh's people and the region. Why has the Yunus administration not been able to take control of the mob violence, the vandalism of Mujib's house, even with the army's support? The expectation was that after taking over from Sheikh Hasina's government, he would clear the accumulated debris and lead the country to elections. But it soon became very clear that the interim administration was anti-Awami League. When the torching of Sheikh Mujib's residence was done, shortly after Yunus went to the United States where he addressed the General Assembly. The anchor asked him why on his watch Sheikh Mujib's house was torched and he had done nothing about it. His answer didn't satisfy anybody. He said it was a meticulous plan, but then he said there was a reset button at work. The question is, what reset button? You don't reset history. Over the last 10 months, it has become very clear that the Yunus government, through all its activities, is against the Awami League—through not allowing Awami League supporters to gather, through letting mobs demolish structures, and attacks on the Hindu minority community. There are still Awami League supporters who can't stay at home for fear they will be targeted by mobs. Everything depends on when we have the election. To have it in good time, we need army pressure to be kept up. We also need a timetable, which the interim government has not yet brought forward. We keep fingers crossed. Nirupama Subramanian is an independent journalist who has worked earlier at The Hindu and at The Indian Express.
