Told police to take action against Ron Haque as per law: Home minister
Following the arrest of Ron Haque Sikder, managing director of Sikder Group, home minister Asaduzzaman Khan has said that he had asked police to take action as per the law.
“I asked police to take action as per the law. It is not that there will be any separate law implemented for them. Whatever are the rule, will be applied,” the minister told Prothom Alo.
A team of the Detective Branch (DB) of police of DMP’s Gulshan division arrested Ron Haque Sikder from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 10:00am today (Friday) as he had come to attend the funeral of his father Zainul Haque Sikder, the chairman of the Sikder Group.
“There was an arrest warrant against them. Police asked me and I told them, there is an arrest warrant against them. That’s why I told the police to take action as per law,” Asaduzzaman Khan said.
There was an arrest warrant against them. Police wanted to know certain things from me. I told them, there is an arrest warrant against them. That’s why told the police to take action as per lawAsaduzzaman Khan, Home Minister
Additional deputy commissioner of DB, Golam Saqlain, told Prothom Alo that Ron Haque has been shown arrested in a case filed by Exim Bank. Another accused, Dipu Haque Sikder, brother of Ron Haque Sikder, could not be arrested as he has not returned to the country.
Ron Haque remained fugitive to avoid arrest in a case filed against him for attempting to murder two officials of Exim Bank.
Ron Haque Sikder and his brother Dipu Haque Sikder left Dhaka by air ambulance as ‘patients’. They professed that the aircraft belonging to R&R Aviation Ltd, owned by the group, was an air ambulance and used to leave the country on 25 May afternoon last year.
Exim Bank director Sirajul Islam filed a case against Ron Haque Sikder and Dipu Haque Sikder, sons of Sikder Group owner Zainul Haque Sikder with Gulshan police station on 19 May 2020.
In the case statement, Sirajul accused Ron and Dipu to have attempted to murder Exim Bank managing director Mohammad Haider Ali Miah and additional managing director Mohammad Firoz Hossain, shooting at them as they did not accept their mortgage documents for a loan of Tk 5 billion (Tk 500 crore).
Additionally, the Sikder brothers had allegedly tortured the two top bank officials at their Banani residence in the capital and forced them to sign a blank paper on 7 May.