No bar for BNP leader Salahuddin to return to Bangladesh: Shilong court

A Shilong court has directed the Indian government to send BNP Standing Committee member Salahuddin Ahmed back to Bangladesh.

Salahuddin, who is in India now, confirmed it on Wednesday.

The Shilong judge court in India’s Meghalaya state has upheld a magistrate court’s verdict that acquitted the BNP leader in a case filed against him over trespassing into India in 2015.

“A Shillong magistrate court earlier acquitted me. Later the Indian government appealed against the verdict. The judge court acquitted me, disposing of the appeal on Tuesday,” Salahuddin said over phone.

He said he has become desperate to return to Bangladesh. “Whenever the Indian government allows me, I will return to the country,” he said.

He said the judge court also asked the Indian government to take necessary steps to send him to back to Bangladesh.

Replying to a question, the BNP leader said he is eagerly waiting to return home.

He hoped that the Indian government and local administration will take immediate steps in line with the court order.

On October 26, 2018, the court of the first-class judicial magistrate, DG Kharshiing, acquitted Salahuddin Ahmed in the case and asked the state government to take necessary steps for his immediate repatriation. But the Indian government made an appeal against the verdict. As a result, he could not return to the country at that time.

After remaining missing for around two months, Salahuddin, a former state minister, was found in Shillong, the capital of the northeastern Indian state of Meghalaya on May 11, 2015.

He was arrested for entering India without any valid documents. A case was filed against him under the Foreigners Act.

Later, Shillong police pressed charges against him in the case.

However, BNP claimed that Salahuddin was picked up from a house in the city’s Uttara area on March 10, 2015 allegedly by unidentified men who introduced themselves as detectives.

Salahuddin Ahmed was assistant personal secretary (APS) of the then prime minister Khaleda Zia in 1991. Then he joined politics leaving his job in the administration. He was elected an MP from Cox’s Bazar constituency in 2001. He became state minister for Communications when BNP came to power.

Salahuddin Ahmed was the joint secretary general of BNP when he was arrested in India. He became the member of BNP’s standing committee, the highest policy-making body of the party. at the 6th Council of BNP.