Hearing on charge framing deferred

The hearing on charge-framing against Amar Desh acting Editor Mahmudur Rahman and four others in a case filed over plotting to kidnap and kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son Sajeeb Wazed Joy has been deferred till May 7.

Metropolitan Magistrate Morshed Al Mamun Bhuiya passed the order after Advocate Zaynul Abedin Mesbah, a lawyer for Mahmudur Rahman, submitted a petition seeking adjournment of the hearing.

In the petition, Mesbah said his client Mahmudur Rahman, now on bail, could not appear before the court as he had gone abroad for treatment.

On February 22 last year, detectives pressed charges against Mahmudur Rahman and four others including journalist Shafiq Rehman, Mohammad Ullah Mamun, vice-president of Jatiyatabadi Samajik Sangskritik Sangstha (Jasas), his son Rizvi Ahmed Caesar, and Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan, an expat businessman living in the United States.

Shafik Rehman was arrested and later secured bail from the High Court. But on March 6 last year, another Dhaka court cancelled his bail and issued an arrest warrant against him. The three others were shown fugitives in the case.