Dhaka: Prominent Hindu leader and spokesperson for the Bangladesh Sammilito Sanatani Jagaran Jot, Chinmoy Krishna Das was on Tuesday shown arrested in four additional cases by a Chattogram court.
The development follows after the same court passed an order on Monday that showed Das arrested on alleged murder charges of Chattogram court lawyer Saiful Islam Alif.
Chattogram Metropolitan magistrate S M Alauddin Mahmud passed the order on Tuesday morning in a virtual hearing based on applications from the police to show the arrest of Das in more cases. The Hindu priest was connected virtually from prison as he could not be physically presented in the court due to security concerns, local media cited.
“Police filed three cases and Alif’s brother filed another case over vandalism on the court building premises, attacking police and general people, crude bomb explosions, and preventing police from discharging their duties during the clashes on November 26,” said Assistant Public Prosecutor Raihanul Wazed Chowdhury while addressing the gathered media.
Earlier on April 30, the Appellate Division of the Bangladesh Supreme Court stayed the High Court order of granting bail to Das in a sedition case.
Raising a demand to free Chinmoy Das from the “inhumane legal assault”, the Awami League party on Tuesday said that the court order has falsely implicated the minority rights activist in an outrageous murder charge which came within days after “communal gang backed by Muhammad Yunus” publicly ran hate campaign against minorities, demanding capital punishment for Das by branding him as agent of India.
“Following illegal incarceration of the outspoken minority leader Chinmoy Krishna Das for over 130 days in false sedition charges to suppress protest against communal violence, the latest court order to extend illegal jailing of Chinmoy Das is another glaring evidence of total weaponisation of judiciary and law enforcement by Yunus regime to conceal communal violence,” the Bangladesh Awami League said in a long post on X..
Awami League said that no legal representative was present for Chinmoy Das during the hearing, yet the court criminalised the monk, exposing that the judiciary no longer delivers justice for anyone who dares to speak against communal violence under the Yunus regime.
Chinmoy was arrested in Dhaka on November 25 last year and sent to jail the following day after a Chittagong court rejected his bail plea. On December 11, the same court again refused bail in the case.
The arrest of Das had sparked massive protests by the Hindu community in Bangladesh, which has been in political turmoil since August 2024 when former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was removed amidst widespread violent demonstrations.
In the following nine months, Bangladesh has witnessed rising cases of attacks on the Hindu community ever since the Hasina-led government was toppled and an interim administration was formed under the leadership of Yunus.
India has taken a tough line on the rights of the Hindu minority and repeatedly stated that there is “systematic persecution of Hindu minorities” under the Yunus-led interim government.
(IANS)
