Staff Correspondent:

A court here on Thursday granted three days police remand for former Chief Election Officer (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal for interrogation in connection with the allegation of holding farcical election in 2024.

Investigation Officer (IO) of the case Sub-Inspector (SI) Shamsuzzoha Sarkar of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Thana produced the former CEC before the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) with a prayer for granting his 10-day remand.

The lawyer of the ex-CEC submitted a bail petition to the court opposing the remand prayer. Metropolitan Magistrate Mustafizur Rahman, on behalf of the CMM, granted a three-day police remand rejecting his bail petition.

The Detective Branch (DB) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police yesterday arrested the former CEC from city’s Moghbazar area. Another former CEC KM Nurul Huda was also arrested after a mob attack from his Uttara residence on June 22.

BNP Central Executive Committee member Salah Uddin Khan on June 22 filed a case against 24 people including three former CECs – Kazi Rakib Uddin Ahmed, K M Nurul Huda and Kazi Habibul Awal for holding farcical elections in 2014, 2018 and 2024. The complainant later on June 25 through a supplementary affidavit added some sections of Bangladesh Penal Code (BPC) covering sedition, cheating and embezzlement of government money.

The other accused of the case are – former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, former election commissioners Md Abdul Mobarak, Abu Hanif, brigadier general (Rtd) Jabed Ali, Md Shah Newaz, Rafiqul Islam, Kabita Khanom, brigadier general (Rtd) Shahdat Hossain Chowdhury, brigadier general (Rtd) Ahsan Habib, Alamgir Hossain and Md Anisur Rahman and the then secretary to the Election Commission, former Inspector General’s of Police (IGPs) Hassan Mahmud Khandkar, Jabed Patwari, Benazir Ahmed, AKM Shahidul Haque, former chief of the special branch (SB) Md Monirul Islam, a former chief of the Director General of the Forces Intelligence, a former chief of National Security Intelligence (NSI) and former Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Dhaka range Syed Nurul Islam.