Salahuddin may face Shillong court by next Saturday

Meghalaya police are likely to produce BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed before a Shillong court by next Saturday and seek time from the court to question him for trespassing, Meghalaya police said.

"Salahuddin seems quite well physically. Therefore, we hope he will be produced before the Shillong court next week," a top police official told The Daily Star yesterday afternoon by phone.  

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Vivek Syiem, superintendent of police (city) of East Khashi Hills in Meghalaya, confirmed this but could not give the specific date.

He said police might take up to two weeks to press charges against Salahuddin from the day of producing him before the court. And if the court accepts the charges, the trial proceedings may take up to three months.

Shillong police earlier said locals and police found the BNP leader roaming Golf Link area on Monday. Finding him "mentally unbalanced," law enforcers sent him to Meghalaya Institute of Health & Neurological Science and then to Shillong Civil Hospital.

Salahuddin told Shilling police that some unidentified men picked him up from an Uttara residence in Dhaka on March 10 and kept him confined somewhere for around months, before leaving him in Shillong blindfolded after nearly an overnight's drive.  

Indian police arrested him on charges of entering the country without valid documents.

He is currently being treated at Shillong Civil Hospital for heart and kidney problems.

Dr DJ Goswami, who is attending him, yesterday said they found some problem in his blood but did not elaborate.

"There is no possibility of releasing him from the hospital in the next couple of days. Salahuddin will be released from the hospital when his condition will be stable," he told this newspaper last evening.

Meanwhile, BNP leader Abdul Latif Jony met Salahuddin at the prison cell of the hospital on Thursday night.

Talking to the BBC Bangla yesterday, he claimed Salahuddin was not getting proper treatment there. Quoting Salahuddin, he said the BNP leader always took his treatment in Singapore. 

The BBC also quoted local police oficials that Salahuddin expressed his wish to travel to Songapore for treatment.

Also yesterday, a lawyer from Guwahati called on Salahuddin at the hospital, said his relatives in Kolkata.

The decision on the legal battle will be made once his wife Hasina Ahmed reaches Shillong, Jony told the BBC.

But she still waiting for an Indian visa, which she expects to get in a couple of days.

Hasina and other close relatives are not talking to reporters for the last two days.

Meanwhile, Prof Emajuddin Ahmed, former vice-chancellor of Dhaka University, yesterday demanded that the government form a judicial committee to find out who had picked Salahuddin up, kept him confined and pushed him into India.