Dhaka: The case filed over the ‘kidnapping’ of poet and columnist Farhad Mazhar was transferred to the Detective Branch of police on Tuesday night.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) deputy commissioner (media) Masudur Rahman on Wednesday said the case was shifted to the DB from Adabar Police Station. "Now detectives will investigate the matter."

A Dhaka court on Tuesday allowed Farhad Mazhar, who had gone 'missing and then rescued,' to return home.

Metropolitan Magistrate Ahsan Habib passed the order on a bond of Tk 10,000 after recording his statement under section 164 when inspector (Operations) of Adabar Police Station Sudip Kumar produced Mazhar before the court.

Earlier, in the morning, Advocate Sanaullah Miah, on behalf of Farhad Mazhar, filed a petition to the court seeking permission for the poet to return home on his own custody.

Farhad Mazhar was picked up blindfolded on Monday morning, said Abdul Baten, joint commissioner (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), on completion of his primary interrogation while talking to reporters at the media centre of DMP on Tuesday.

Quoting Mazhar, Abdul Baten said some people picked him up in a vehicle and then tied up his mouth and blindfolded him when he went out of his residence for buying medicines early Monday. Later, they made a phone call to his wife over Mazhar's mobile phone and demanded ransom for his release.

After bringing Farhad Mazhar back to the capital from Khulna, police initially took him to Adabar Police Station at about 9:00am and later he was taken to the office of Detective Branch (DB) of police at capital's Minto Road.

The columnist was taken to a Dhaka court at about 3:00pm from the DB office.

Didar Ahmmed, deputy inspector general (DIG) of Khulna Range, told journalists that Farhad Mazhar was brought to Fultala Police Station at about 12:00am after his 'rescue' from a bus of 'Hanif Paribahan' at Nayapara in Abhaynagar upazila on Monday night.

Police traced Mazhar at Nayapara in Abhaynagar upazila on Monday night, over 18 hours after he was reportedly kidnapped from the capital.

Police found him at the 'Hanif Paribahan' bus at about 11:30pm while he was returning to Dhaka from Khulna, said officer-in-charge of Abhaynagar Police Station Anisur Rahman.

Earlier, Farhad Mazhar was said to have been kidnapped by unknown miscreants from Adabar in the capital in the early hours on Monday.

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) began a trace of Mazhar's mobile phone after his wife said Monday she had received a call from him saying he was being taken away and feared for his life.

She also told police she had received a ransom demand of 3.5 million taka ($43,300) for her husband.

CCTV footage of Mazhar's neighbourhood in Dhaka showed him walking away with a man early Monday morning.

The 69-year-old is a supporter of the country's main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

BNP officials have said tens of thousands of their activists and supporters have been arrested by the government in recent years.

There have also been allegations of so-called enforced disappearances -- where authorities detain people unofficially and hold them in secret jails.