Salahuddin indicted for trespassing

A Shillong court in the Indian state of Meghalaya yesterday framed charges against BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed for intruding into the Indian territory.

The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate KML Nongbri also fixed July 30 for starting the trial of the case filed under the foreigners act.

On June 3, Shillong police pressed charges against the BNP leader 23 days after the case was filled.

Salahuddin's lawyer SP Mahanta said his client denied the charges because he did not trespass.

"If Salahuddin confesses his crime, the court will order him to be sent to Bangladesh after awarding punishment against him,"

said lawyer IC Jha, who stood for the state.

If the BNP leader is found guilty, he might face jail term up to five years, said lawyers.

Salahuddin, 54, is now living in a rented house at Shillong and taking medical treatment from North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (Neigrihms) under judicial custody.

Shillong police arrested the BNP joint secretary general while he was loitering there on May 11, around two months after alleged plainclothes detectives picked him up from a house at Uttara in Dhaka.

BNP and Salahuddin's family have been saying that law enforcers had taken Salahuddin, who had been acting as the BNP's spokesperson at that time.

The government refuted the allegations.

Salahuddin was first admitted to a mental hospital in Shillong as police found him "mentally unstable". Later, he was moved to Shillong Civil Hospital.

On May 20, he was taken to Neigrihms for better treatment.

A Shillong court on May 27 placed Salahuddin, also a former state minister, on judicial custody.

Two days later, another court rejected his bail prayer. He had sought bail for better treatment of his ailment in a third country.