Mayor Tayebur produced in Khulna court

Khulna City Corporation (KCC) Mayor Sheikh Tayebur Rahman was brought to Khulna yesterday, one day after he was arrested in the capital in an extortion case.
The city mayor was produced in a Khulna court at around 8:50 last night. However he was brought back to Khulna Sadar Police Station at around 10:20pm as there was no lawyers and magistrate in the court.
Police said hearing on a seven-day remand petition for Tayebur will be held today.
Gulshan police arrested Tayebur at his Gulshan apartment in the capital Friday night and later turned him over to Cantonment Police Station where he stayed till 11:30am yesterday before being whisked to his hometown.
The three-time mayor, also a former ambassador to Senegal during late Zia regime, reportedly came to Dhaka by evading security forces, who were snooping around his Khulna residence, to escape arrest.
A procurement officer with the city corporation's municipal services project, SM Hafizur Rahman, filed the extortion case on Thursday midnight with Kotwali Police Station in Khulna, accusing the mayor and the KCC's public relations officer of forcing him into paying them Tk 2,90,000.
The same complainant, who was suspended last month on corruption charges, filed a general diary last week, bringing 15 counts of allegation, including the misappropriation of some Tk 10 crore in development-project funds, against the mayor, the public relations officer and three other people.
Tayebur, also the environment and forests secretary of the BNP, was appointed KCC mayor back in 1991 and was later elected for the job twice. Though his third term in office expired on June 26 this year, he continued to serve as mayor.
The mayor's name appeared on the list of corruption suspects and a three-member special Anti-Corruption Commission team has been in Khulna since last week to probe his wealth.