A Dhaka court on Saturday gave police eight days to grill Indian fugitive Abdur Rauf Merchant and two associates arrested this week by Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Detective Branch.

Police escorted the three in handcuffs into the chief metropolitan magistrates court at around quarter to the four in the afternoon. They emerged after the ruling just ten minutes later to be taken away in a white microbus.

No lawyer was present on behalf of Merchant or the two others during the remand hearing.

Investigation officer Ashraf Hossain in his remand petition said police needed ten days to grill Merchant on plans for criminal activities in Bangladesh.

Police earlier in the day said Merchant, convicted in 2001 for the murder of music mogul Gulshan Kumar, came to Bangladesh on the orders of notorious Mumbai 'mafia don' Daud Ibrahim.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police presented Merchant before the media before producing him at the CMM court requesting 10 days to interrogate him.

DMP commissioner ASM Shahidul Islam told reporters that Ibrahim had sent Merchant to Bangladesh to extend his criminal network out of India.

Merchant, however, told the assembled reporters that he had fled his country fearing he would be shot dead in an 'encounter' with Indian law enforcers.

He denied any link with Ibrahim. He also claimed he was innocent and had no role in the 1997 murder of Kumar. He said he had been falsely implicated and 'trapped' in the case.

Merchant began serving his sentence in 2002. After serving eight years and four months, he was released in April this year on a 14-day furlough to see his ailing mother, in Mumbra, a small town about 40 km from Mumbai, but was reported absconding by Indian police earlier this month.

The DMP commissioner said Saturday Merchant was arrested by a Detective Branch team in Brahmanbaria earlier in the week.

He added that they had also arrested the two associates—Zahid Sheikh in the capital's Adabor area and Kamal Mian in Brahmanbaria—for sheltering the Indian fugitive.

Police have also launched a manhunt for any other of Merchant's associates in Bangladesh.

Bramhanbaria police earlier said Merchant arrived in the district after crossing illegally into Bangladesh through the Akhaura border, and was staying at Kamal's residence at South Mourail in Bramhanbaria district.

Rahman said Merchant had also got his hands on a Bangladeshi passport in order to pass himself off as a local if necessary.

A case has been filed in Dhaka at Adabor Police Station, against Merchant and his Bangladeshi shelterers, under the Passport Act and Foreigners Act, said assistant commissioner of the police prosecution department Anisur Rahman.

Merchant and Zahid received Bangladeshi passports using false addresses with the help of Kamal Mian, said investigating officer Ashraf Hossain in Saturday's remand petition.

Papers, mobile sets, a driving licence and two SIMs of Indian mobile operator Airtel have been recovered from the house at Shekher Tek in Adabor where Zahid was arrested.

From the call list of Merchant's mobile phone, police suspect that he had regular contact with Indian underworld 'kingpin' Ibrahim while in Bangladesh.

Gulshan Kumar, renowned owner of Indian music company T-series, was shot dead on the streets of Mumbai on Aug 12, 1997.

He was believed to have been murdered by contract after refusing to pay extortion money to gangsters.

Source: bdnews24.com

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