The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Fifteen people arrested in connection with a case involving the theft of two 1,500-year-old statues of Hindu god Vishnu from Zia International Airport hours before their shipment along with 145 other artefacts by a Air France cargo aircraft for Paris were placed under a five-day police remand for interrogation.

Of the arrestees, three were officials of Air France's Dhaka office and seven were cargo loaders.

They were produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court yesterday morning by sub-inspector Monu Shoheb Imtiaz of Biman Bandar Police Station, who is also the investigating officer of the case. The investigating officer pleaded to the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Habibur Rahman to place the suspects under a 10-day remand for interrogation. However, the court approved only five days.

The first information report did not mention the names of the accused. The 15 people were arrested on suspicion of their involvement in the incident and sent to court.

Defence lawyers Karimul Haider Chowdhury, Kajem Ali Dulal and Abdul Hye opposed the appeal for remand. The counter-appeal by the defence lawyers was rejected.

Two statues of Vishnu, which were up for shipment to Paris for display at the Guimet Museum, went missing from Zia International Airport. The incident was detected when the crates containing the artefacts were being loaded into a Air France cargo aircraft on the runway of Zia International Airport on Saturday.

The arrestees are Zamiul Abedin, Masud Rana Saiful, Edward Roy, Dev Barua, Amir Hamza, Abdul Hakim Babul, Solaiman, Abu Bakar, Afsar, Abul Hossain, Md Al Momin, Shahjahan Ali, Shariful Islam Manik, Bilal Hossain and Shanker Chandra Dey.