Police 'confine' candidate for 2 hrs, 'pressure' to step aside

The police have allegedly picked up an independent candidate from his residence at midnight, held him at the police station for two hours, and pressured him not to contest in the forthcoming 12th parliamentary election.

The incident took place in Dinajpur Sadar Upazila under Dinajpur-3 constituency in the small hours of Thursday, while the candidate is Bishwajit Ghosh alias Kanchan, general secretary of Awami League’s Sadar upazila unit.

Meanwhile, Rashed Parvez, president of Jubo League’s Dinajpur district unit, alleged that he received threats not to submit his nomination paper.

In the constituency, the ruling party has nominated Iqbalur Rahim, whip of the national parliament, for the upcoming national election.

Party sources said Bishwajit and Rashed were once confidants of whip Iqbalur Rahim until their relationship soured around four years ago. They are now competing for the same parliamentary seat.

Around 12:30 am on Thursday, a police team took Bishwajit Ghosh from his residence in the district town's Barabandar area to Kotwali police station, where he was held for around two hours before being returned home.

Bishwajit later submitted his nomination paper to the returning officer on Thursday afternoon.

While speaking to the media after submitting nomination, Bishwajit Ghosh said their party leadership did not impose any barriers to run in the election independently. Despite this, he faced various restrictions throughout the process, from collecting nomination form to submitting it, and was barred through different channels not to contest in the election.

Without specifying any individual, he said someone might become jealous out of his popularity. In the face of a query about the alleged confinement, Bishwajit instead asked the newspersons to find out why the police took him to the station.

However, Farid Hossain, officer-in-charge of Kotwali police station, denied the allegations, saying they called Bishwajit to exchange greetings and discuss maintaining discipline during the nomination paper submission.

Before the incident, a loyalist of Bishwajit -- Bazlar Rahman -- dropped him at his residence around 11:45 pm. Later, Bishwajit informed him at around 12:30 am that four policemen came to his residence and were asking him to come out.

Afterward, Bishwajit called Bazlar again and asked him to come to the police station.

Bazlar recounted he saw Bishwajit, dressed in a lungi and t-shirt, at the OC’s room in the police station. At one stage, they forced Bazlar and some others went out of the station and engaged in discussions with Bishwajit until 2:00 am. Later, the police dropped him back at his residence around 2:15 pm.

Bishwajit informed Bazlar that the police advised him to stay away from the election and not to get involved with problems.

Jubo League president Rashed Parvez said he was warned of potential danger on his way to submit the nomination form, citing a meeting at Sadhurghat area.