‘Vorer Pata’ editor Ertaza Hassan remanded

Bangladesh desk: Kazi Ertaza Hassan, editor and publisher of the Daily Vorer Pata, has been placed on a one-day remand.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate passed the remand order on Wednesday following a petition.

Ertaza Hassan was produced before the court at 10:30am today. Later, he was kept under police custody. The investigation officer of the case sought two-day remand for interrogation, but the court accepted one-day for interrogation.

Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) picked up Ertaza Hassan, also an elected director of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), from his office in Gulshan-2 on Tuesday night in a fraud case filed over a disputed piece of land in Dhaka.

Saiful Islam Bhuyain, deputy managing director of Ashiyan Lands Development, filed the fraud case on January 10 this year with Khilgaon Police Station against the officials of Northern University Bangladesh (NUB) over a dispute centring a land procurement back in 2013.

Police earlier had arrested Prof Abu Yusuf Mohammad Abdullah, chairman of the NUB trustee board, in this connection.

Ertaza’s connection with the case was not immediately clear, but PBI’s Abu Yusuf said his name came up during their investigation.

The office of the Vorer Pata and NUB’s former campus were housed in the same building in Dhaka’s Farmgate.

Other two accused in the case are Riazul Alam and Selim Munshi.