DHAKA: A Dhaka court Monday saw a pandemonium over the remand of detained acting editor of the closed-down Amar Desh newspaper Mahmudur Rahman as his lawyers brandished shoes, making the judge visibly embarrassed.  

He was, however, given to police for grilling in two separate cases on a four-day remand granted by another court after the imbroglio.

Metropolitan magistrate Mehedi Hasan Talukder felt embarrassed twice at hearing on the remand petition and left the court, witnesses said.  

“The lawyers locked into an altercation over Mahmudur Rahman`s statement in the court. The defense lawyers threw shoes and missiles of files as the judge kept banging the table in his abortive attempt to maintain order,” says a spot account of the melee.

The storm over, Magistrate Mohammad Ali Hossain of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate`s Court-3 heard the petition and granted police three days for interrogating Mahmud, also ex-energy adviser of the past BNP government.

He was produced in the court with a five-day remand prayer by police at 2:18pm in a case filed by former publisher of the Bengali daily Hasmat Ali.

In the case statement, Hasmat Ali stated that he sold all the shares of Amar Desh Publications Ltd to Mahmudur Rahman last year. But Mahmud kept using his name as Amar Desh publisher illegally, he alleged.

Police arrested Mahmudur Rahman on June 2 from his Amar Desh office at Karwan Bazar in an overnight siege.

Earlier in the day, judge Habibur Rahman Bhuiyan of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court remanded the acting editor for one day after Kotowali police produced him before it with a seven-day remand prayer.

The police filed the case on June 2 against Mahmud accusing him of obstructing the police from discharging their duties during the time of his arrest.

In another development, journalists and workers of the daily Amar Desh brought out procession and staged a rally in the afternoon in protest against taking Mahmud on remand.

BDST 18:50 hrs June 7, 2010
Corr/RS/SMS/MUA