DHAKA: Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari, the Hindu monk arrested and charged with sedition in Bangladesh, will have to wait until Jan 2 for a bail hearing as a Chattogram court accepted on Tuesday the prosecution’s request for a lengthy adjournment on the ground that he did not have a defence lawyer yet.
Bangladesh Sammilita Sanatani Jagran Jote, of which Chinmoy Krishna is a spokesperson, was quoted by local media as saying that around 70 Hindu lawyers were “falsely sued in a case to prevent their participation” in the arrested monk’s fresh bail hearing.
Although Iskcon Bangladesh has disowned Chinmoy Krishna, saying he was expelled in Oct for disciplinary reasons, Iskcon Kolkata’s vice-president Radharamn Das protested against the circumstances leading to metropolitan sessions judge Md Saiful Islam scheduling the next bail hearing almost a month later. “How can any lawyer appear for #ChinmoyKrishnaDas when they are being targeted?” he wrote on X, citing reports of an alleged attack on a counsel identified as Regan Acharya the day he was arrested.
On Nov 26, Chattogram’s sixth metropolitan magistrate judge Kazi Shariful Islam rejected Chinmoy Krishna’s first bail plea, triggering clashes in which a lawyer named Saiful Islam Alif died.
In Kolkata, Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s request to PM Modi to prod UN to deploy a peacekeeping force in Bangladesh and get back “persecuted Indians” received support from Iskcon. “We are thankful to CM Mamata Banerjee for speaking up on the issue and highlighting the need for global intervention…,” said Radharamn Das, the Iskcon vice-president. He said democracy was “in jeopardy” in Bangladesh and that “basic human rights of minorities are being compromised”. On Monday, Radharamn Das had posted a photo of wounded advocate Ramen Roy in hospital, saying he was left fighting for his life for defending Chinmoy Das in court.