- Tuesday, March 11, 2025
The bail plea of Das was set to be heard by the court of Chattogram Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Saiful Islam on Tuesday, but no lawyer appeared on his behalf
By: Shajil Kumar
HINDU leader Chinmoy Krishna Das failed to get any relief on Tuesday as his bail hearing in a Bangladesh court was postponed for a month due to the unavailability of any lawyer to represent him, according to a media report.
After an initial hearing on the bail petition on Tuesday, the judge set January 2 for another hearing, Chattogram Metropolitan Police ADC (Prosecution) Mofizur Rahman was quoted as saying by bdnews24.com.
Das will have to wait a month to see if he will receive bail in a sedition case against him, it said.
His bail plea was set to be heard by the court of Chattogram Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Saiful Islam on Tuesday, but no lawyer appeared on Chinmoy’s behalf at the hearing, the report added.
There was heavy security in the Chattogram court area for the bail hearing. Large deployments of security officials from different forces took up positions nearby.
Das was not brought to court for the hearing. A leader from the Chattogram Bar Association and other lawyers were seen holding a protest march on the court premises.
Das, a spokesperson for the Bangladesh Sammilita Sanatani Jagran Jote, was arrested from Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on November 25 for alleged sedition.
He was denied bail and sent to jail by a Chattogram court on November 26, triggering protests by his supporters.
A lawyer was killed during violence in Bangladesh’s southeastern port city of Chattogram over his arrest.
After Das was denied bail, his lawyers immediately filed a revision petition, seeking another hearing. However, no hearing took place that day.
The relations between India and Bangladesh came under strain after the interim government headed by Muhammad Yunus came to power following the ouster of prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
India has been expressing concerns over attacks on minorities, especially Hindus, in that country.
There has been a rise in violent attacks against Hindus in Bangladesh. Hindu minority groups have been frequently reporting atrocities against their community members in different parts of Bangladesh, even after Yunus took charge.
Indian envoy summoned
Bangladesh on Tuesday summoned Indian High Commissioner Pranay Verma to the foreign affairs ministry office in Dhaka, a day after Dhaka lodged a strong protest against the alleged vandalism of its mission in Tripura.
“He (Verma) came as he was asked to come when we conveyed him our concerns,” a foreign ministry official briefly said.
Foreign Affairs Adviser Mohammad Touhid Hossain earlier said the Indian envoy was asked to come to the foreign office after the Agartala incident.
Verma, on the other hand, said Delhi wants to build a “constant stable, constructive relationship” with Bangladesh saying no single issue should stand a barrier for bilateral ties.
“We are willing to engage with the interim government of Bangladesh,” he told reporters emerging from the meeting with acting foreign secretary Riaz Hamidullah.
India on Monday described as “deeply regrettable” the incident of the breach of the premises of the Bangladesh consulate in Agartala in the northeastern state of Tripura.
Earlier in the day, terming the vandalism at Bangladesh’s diplomatic mission in Agartala as India’s “failure,” Law Affairs Adviser in the interim government Asif Nazrul asked New Delhi to reassess its neighbour afresh after the toppling of the Sheikh Hasina regime.
“We believe in a friendship based on equality and mutual respect. While Sheikh Hasina’s government followed a pro-India policy to cling to power without elections, India must realise that this is not Sheikh Hasina’s Bangladesh,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
The tension between the two neighbours simmering since August 5, when deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India, aggravated further with the arrest of the Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das last week.
Three days after Hasina fled to India following widespread protests against her Awami League-led government over a controversial job quota system, Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel laureate, took over as the Chief Adviser of the interim government. (PTI)
