2 remanded after arrest for allegedly aiding Faisal in fleeing across border

The court has granted a three-day remand for two individuals arrested in connection with helping Faisal Karim Masud, the main accused in the attempted murder case of Sharif Osman Hadi, flee illegally to India. The accused are Sibyon Diu and Sanjay Chisim.

Dhaka additional chief metropolitan magistrate Jashita Islam approved their remand on Thursday.

Osman Hadi, spokesperson of Inqilab Moncho, had been campaigning to contest the Dhaka-8 constituency as an independent candidate. Last Friday afternoon, while returning after campaigning in the Motijheel area, assailants shot him from a motorcycle on Box Culvert Road in Purana Paltan.

According to information from law-enforcement officials involved in the investigation, Faisal Karim Masud, who was riding pillion of the motorcycle, fired at Osman Hadi that day.

He then went to his sister’s residence in Agargaon on the same motorcycle, left the place in a CNG-run auto-rickshaw, accompanied by the motorcycle rider Alamgir Sheikh, and the two later crossed the border into India that same night via Mymensingh by road.

Police arrested Sibion Diu and Sanjay Chisim on allegations of assisting them in entering India after crossing the border. They were produced before a Dhaka court on Thursday afternoon.

The investigating officer, inspector Faisal Ahmed of the Motijheel zonal team of the Detective Branch (DB), sought seven days’ remand for questioning.

The prosecution argued in favour of the remand. After the hearing, the judge granted three days’ remand for interrogation, Dhaka metropolitan public prosecutor Omar Faruk Faruki said.

In the remand application, police stated that, based on witness testimony and technological evidence, these accused had helped the named accused in the case (Faisal) and his unidentified accomplice flee to India through illegal routes.

Sibion Diu is the nephew of Jewel Areng, a former Awami League member of parliament from Haluaghat and Dhobaura upazilas. He has long controlled a syndicate facilitating illegal cross-border movement of people and goods in the Haluaghat, Dhobaura, and Sherpur areas.

Interrogation of the accused is necessary to determine under whose planning and advice the named and unidentified accused were helped across the border, to identify other individuals involved in planning the attack on Osman Hadi, to recover the weapon used in the attempted murder, and to identify the planners, financiers, and patrons behind the incident.