Dhaka, Nov 4 (bdnews24.com) – The Rapid Action Battalion paraded Hotel Purbani International managing director Mahbubur Rahman Joynal and his girlfriend before reporters Sunday night, hours after they were arrested at the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court in Dhaka.

Accused in four cases, Joynal, 55, surrendered to the CMM’s Court but chief metropolitan magistrate Enamul Haque refused to accept the surrender.

An assistant to the CMM said the day’s working hours were over and it was too late for a person to surrender.

Joynal’s 26-year-old girlfriend Jannatul Ferdous, nicknamed Niki or Nikita, had earlier been arrested by the RAB as she arrived at the CMM’s Court, also to turn herself in.

The arrest of the two is considered a “much-coveted catch” as the RAB widened its hunt for the businessman and his girlfriend, both accused of having close ties to the Yaba trade.

As part of the recent drive against the drug, a RAB-3 team raided Joynal’s home in Dhanmondi Monday to arrest Niki, a well-known model.

Barrister Abdullah Al Mamun, a lawyer for the two, told bdnews24.com: “We came to court to seek justice, but that was not possible. Jannatul Ferdous was illegally dragged away by the security officers.”

At least 30 lawyers were on the court premises when the drama unfolded, bdnews24.com’s legal affairs correspondent reported from the scene.

WHAT RAB SAYS

In the RAB-3 office in Tikatuli, commanding officer Sultan Mohammad Nurani briefed the media on the buildup to the arrest and said Joynal and Niki were just outside their Dhanmondi home when the RAB officers arrived on the night of October 29.

“But the two sped away in a car and we could not identify them as we had no pictures of them at the time,” he said.

The same night, according to Nurani, Joynal drove northbound, down the Dhaka-Tangail Highway, along with Niki in an attempt to escape arrest.

In Tangail, they checked into a guesthouse to spend the night.

“Joynal was helpless and his friends walked out on him when they saw pictures of the raid on his Dhanmondi home in newspapers,” Nurani claimed.

The RAB had formed five units to trace the two and arrested a cousin of Niki in Chittagong to extract intelligence about their whereabouts.

The elite force, Nurani said, had almost closed in on them in a village of Gazipur, but the two left the house of a relative one and a half hours before the RAB team arrived there, Nurani said.

Joynal and Niki then moved back to Dhaka.

Nurani said RAB officers were dispatched to the Supreme Court and trial court areas to work undercover, as “we knew they would seek anticipatory bails from the High Court or surrender to the trial court".

The RAB officers put up several checkpoints on the roads to the High Court and the CMM’s Court.

Around 5pm Sunday, Joynal and Niki arrived at the CMM’s court by CNG autorickshaw.

“She was in burqa—her face covered in veil. She tried to hide her face when a RAB officer stopped her,” Nurani said in his briefing.

Sure of Niki’s identity, a woman RAB officer, meanwhile, grabbed her, creating chaos in the area.

“It created scope for Joynal to rush into the court premises,” Nurani said.

DESPERATE DASH FOR SURRENDER

From Gazipur, Joynal and Niki first hired a microbus to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University hospital, en route to Old Dhaka where the CMM’s Court is located.

“The two fugitives meandered through the narrow lanes to the court,” Nurani said.

bdnews24.com’s legal affairs correspondent reported from the scene that a team of lawyers had rushed to file petitions seeking approval to send Joynal and Niki to jail, in a bid to bypass arrest or remand.

But a GRO (general recording officer) told the lawyers that petitions could not be filed without approval from the CMM.

The surrender of Joynal became uncertain.

Minutes later, court police sub-inspector Aliar Rahman said the CMM would not accept the appeals for surrender.

The lawyers desperately led Joynal into a room on the court premises to evade the arrest attempt by the RAB officers.

He was finally arrested on the stairs of the new court building.