Khaleda Zia's son sent to jail
Tarique Rahman has been denied bail in an extortion case and sent to jail after grilling by security agencies.
The son of Bangladesh's former prime minister Khaleda Zia has been denied bail in an extortion case and sent to jail after four days of grilling by security agencies, lawyers said on Tuesday.
Tarique Rahman, who is the senior joint secretary general of Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and enjoyed immense clout during the party's five-year rule, was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Abdur Rouf Khan late last night.
The next bail petition hearing was set for March 19, they said.
Tarique, arrested by security forces on March 8 from his mother's residence in a late night swoop as part of the caretaker government's anti-graft crackdown and remanded to four-day custody, was denied any special facility and had to spend the night like an ordinary prison inmate.
"We did not provide division facilities to Tarique as he does not qualify under any category to get the facilities," Deputy Inspector General (Prisons) Major Shamsul Haider Siddique told The Daily Star newspaper.
The son of slain President Ziaur Rahman is facing charges of extortion. The investigation officer petitioned the judge to confine him to jail until the probe was completed.
Defence lawyers submitted two petitions seeking "division" facilities and medical treatment for Tarique in jail.
The court ordered that the BNP leader be provided treatment in jail and asked the prison authorities to decide whether the jail code allowed division facilities for him.
A grim faced Tarique appeared to be sobbing when the defence lawyers sought medical treatment for him and was seen taking a tissue from a counsel, media reports said.