Vorer Pata editor Ertaza Hassan placed on remand

A Dhaka court today placed Dr Kazi Ertaza Hassan, the editor and publisher of Bangla daily Vorer Pata, on a one-day remand in a case filed over registering five bighas of land with fake documents.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Mosharraf Hossan passed the order after Md Mehedi Hasan, a sub-inspector of Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) and also the investigation officer of the case, produced him before the court with a two-day remand prayer.

In the remand prayer, the IO said Ertaza, also a director of FBCCI, helped three other accused, including Prof Abu Md Yousuf Abdullah, chairman of board of trustee of Northern University of Bangladesh (NUB), register five bighas of land for the university presenting fake persons and documents before the commission of Sub-Registry Office.

Moreover, Ertaza in connivance with three other accused, misappropriated Tk 20 crore. So, he needs to be remanded to find out vital clues about the forgery and to gather more information about involvement of others with the forgery, the IO added.

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PBI arrests FBCCI Director Kazi Ertaza Hassan over forging land documents

Defence, however, submitted a petition seeking bail along with cancellation of the remand prayer on grounds that their client's name was not included in the first information of the case.

Their client is an editor of a daily newspaper and he was implicated in the case as part of a conspiracy to harass him. So, he should be granted bail considering his social status, defence added in their submission.

Upon hearing both the sides, the magistrate turned down the defence pleas and placed him on remand for quizzing about the incident.

Ertaza was arrested from Gulshan-2 in the capital yesterday (November 1, 2022).