Shawdesh Desk: Sunamganj court on Monday sent former panel mayor Hossain Ahmed Rasel to jail rejecting his bail plea in a case involving giving fake birth certificates to two Rohingyas.

He surrendered before the court around noon in the case and sought bail.

“The court turned down his plea,” said court Inspector Selim Newaz.
Arrest warrants were issued for Sunamganj Municipality Mayor Nader Bakht, Rasel, district bar association member Kawsar Alam, municipality’s birth registrar Md Selim Uddin, and its assistant VAT officer Pijush Kanti Talukder on Jan 20.

A day later, Nader and Kawsar secured bail from the court the next day.

According to case details, two Rohingyas went to Sunamganj from Teknaf camp with the help of four men to get passports with fake documents on April 4, 2019. The four men are residents of the district’s Jamalganj upazila.

They submitted necessary documents for passports that day. Passport officials became suspicious and detained the six men before handing them over to police.

A case was filed against the six men at the Sadar Police Station. The Rohingyas took birth certificates with the recommendation of Rasel and they were attested by lawyer Kawsar.

Police pressed charges in court against the four men who had helped the Rohingyas on Oct 20 last year. Later, the names of five others – Nader, Rasel, Kawsar, Selim and Pijush – included in the list of accused.
Rohingyas obtained Bangladeshi passports illegally

Thousands of Rohingyas had previously managed to illegally obtain Bangladeshi passports and went abroad.

Although there is no specific data on their number but in 2015, the then expatriates’ welfare minister said at least 50,000 Rohingyas had gone abroad on Bangladeshi passports.

Bangladesh is currently hosting more than 1.1 million Rohingyas.

Creating a biometric database on the forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals has helped prevent many Rohingyas’ bid to obtain Bangladeshi passports using fake documents.