Bangladesh Hindu monk must get a free trial: India

India on Friday emphasised the importance of a fair trial for those arrested in Bangladesh, referring to the arrest of the Hindu monk on the alleged charge of sedition but refusing to formally name him.

India’s balancing act comes in the wake of Dhaka’s demand that New Delhi hand over Sheikh Hasina, who has taken refuge in the Indian capital since she fled the student-led uprising last august.

“We expect that those people who have been arrested in Bangladesh must get a fair trial and this is our appeal,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during a weekly briefing.

Dhaka has demanded that India returns Hasina, in response to which Delhi is raising the ante on the arrested Hindu monk.

Chinmoy Das, also a spokesperson for the Sammilita Sanatani Jagrani Jote orgnaisation, has been denied bail since his arrest on November 25.

Jaiswal’s comment comes in the wake of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) Bangladesh claiming that it would ensure a “fair” investigation into allegations of “crimes against humanity” allegedly committed by Hasina during the July-August 2024 mass protests in the country.

The Bangladeshi media, quoting ICT sources, has said that the agency is utilising geolocation tools, video analysis, and forensic reports to gather evidence in the Hasina matter. According to the Daily Star newspaper, the agency has collected original videos, photos, and phone records related to the killings of students and civilians during the July-August protests.

Established in 2010 by the Hasina government to adjudicate crimes committed during the war of independence that led to the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, the ICT was reconstituted on October 14, after Hasina was ousted. The restructuringwas aimed at expediting trials related to crimes committed during the July-August protests in the country, in which  753 people were killed and thousands injured. Over 60 complaints of crimes against Hasina and senior Awami League leaders have been filed with the ICT.

But Bangladesh analysts and strategic experts in Delhi, with whom The Tribune spoke, said they were doubtful of the ICT’s “fairness” in the charged atmosphere that currently prevailed in Bangladesh.

Retired General Arun K Sahni, a former Army commander who watches Bangladesh closely, said there was no question of the ICT being “fair and impartial” until free and fair elections were held in Dhaka. At the moment, he said, “there is a reasonable amount of vendetta against Awami League in the country”.

“Today’s government has appointed its own set of judges. While I agree that some excesses definitely took place during Hasina’s tenure, I would be very circumspect if an honourable and fair investigation took place into this whole story,” the retired general added.

A second analyst, former high commissioner to Bangladesh, Pinak Chakravarty, told this reporter that the “Higher judiciary has been replaced by judges who are nominees of the new interim government and hence can be expected to deliver judgement accordingly.”

He said the ICT, at present, "is trying to look for evidence in which Hasina has given an order to somebody to shoot or kill someone, how fair will that be, I wonder?”