Dhaka Bureau: APS Omar Farooq Talukder of late former railway minister Suranjit Sen Gupta was involved in the kidnapping of two militants sentenced to death from Dhaka court, police said. He was arrested six days ago and interrogated by the Counter Terrorism Investigation Department of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) in two phases and remanded for four days.
A responsible officer of the DMP told the media on Tuesday that Omar Farooq was found involved in the kidnapping of death-sentenced militants Abu Siddique Sohail and Mozammel Hossain from the Dhaka court. Omar Farooq is married to the sister of escaped militant Abu Siddique Sohail.
A review of technical data before and after the incident showed that Omar Farooq spoke to the wives of Abu Siddique Sohail and Mozammel Hossain. He is involved in the abduction of these two militants from the court premises. However, Omar Farooq’s lawyer has completely denied such allegations by the police. Abdul Awal.
He said Omar Farooq Talukdar is a lawyer by profession. On the day the two militants escaped from the court, he handled the case as a lawyer in the Supreme Court. He claimed that Omar Farooq married Tanjila Afroz (Jahan), the sister of militant Abu Siddique Sohail, who was sentenced to death this year, but he (Omar Farooq) had no contact with Abu Siddique Sohail. Police have arrested Omar Farooq in this case for harassment.
On November 20 last, in front of the main gate of Dhaka’s Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court, they attacked the police and snatched death row militants Abu Siddique Sohail and Mozammel Hossain. In this incident, the police filed a case under the Anti-Terrorism Act at Kotwali police station. Sources related to the police and the court say that 15 people including Omar Farooq and his wife Tanjila have been arrested so far in the case of abducting two militants.
Late Suranjit Sen Gupta’s former APS Omar Farooq Talukder and his wife Tanjila were arrested by the police on December 20. The next day, Omar Farooq was brought to court and requested to be remanded for 15 days. The police claimed in a written submission to the court that day, when Omar Farooq was in jail in 2012 in a corruption case, he turned to militancy.
He married Abu Siddique’s sister and helped Ansar al-Islam in various ways. Under the guise of legal profession, he cooperated with militants. Directly assisted in snatching brother-in-law Abu Siddique from the court. A review of Omar Farooq’s mobile phone text messages showed that his first wife called Omar Farooq a terrorist.
At the end of the four-point remand, the court was told in writing by the police that Omar Farooq went to Mymensingh with Shikha, wife of Abu Siddique. Consulted with him on various matters. Omar Farooq also spoke to the wife of another fugitive militant, Mozammel, in the court premises.
The DMP official said that Abu Mohammad Hossain (father of the militant Mozammel) has given a confessional statement in the court under section 164 about how Omar Farooq helped the two militants to escape. There he said, Omar Farooq went to Mymensingh and spoke to his daughter Shikha and Mozammel’s wife Trishna. However, on behalf of Omar Farooq, his lawyer told the court in writing that his client was involved in the case for harassing Omar Farooq’s ex-wife based on false information.
On April 9, 2012, driver Azam drove a car carrying then Railway Minister Suranjit Sengupta’s APS Omar Farooq, former General Manager of Eastern Railway Yusuf Ali Mridha and Railway Commandant Enamul into the BGB headquarters. A bag full of Tk 70 lakh was recovered from that car. Suranjit stepped down from the post of Railway Minister when the incident caused a stir across the country.
At that time, there were complaints of irregularities in the recruitment process of 1 thousand 69 employees in 13 categories of railways. The ACC started an investigation into the source of the recovered money. ACC filed a case in Ramna police station on August 14 of that year as illegal assets were found against Omar Farooq during the investigation. In 2017, the court sentenced Omar Farooq Talukdar to five years imprisonment in that case. At the same time, he was fined 1 crore 23 lakh 47 thousand taka.
