Dhaka: Hasina Ahmed on behalf of her husband Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Salahuddin Ahmed moved a bail application on Friday before the first class judicial magistrate in Shillong of Meghalya state of India for his release, Indian media reported.   

BNP assistant office secretary Abdul Latif Jony, now in Shillong,  said they have engaged a lawyer for dealing with the court issues and he is working accordingly.

Earlier, he said senior criminal lawyer of the Meghalaya High Court SP Mahanta will defend Salahuddin in the court in the case filed against him for intruding into India.

The court, while keeping the bail in abeyance, asked for records from the investigating officer and fixed 29 May as the next date for hearing of the case.

The BNP leader is yet to be produced before the court pending the final opinion of doctors who are treating him at North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS).  

Salahuddin Ahmed was shifted to NEIGRIHMS on Wednesday evening after being referred by doctors at the Civil Hospital. The condition of Salahuddin, who is suffering from kidney and heart ailments, is said to be stable.

Earlier, a government lawyer said in the bail petition, Salhuddin’s wife stated that he had gone missing on 10 March after Bangladesh enforcement officials in plainclothes whisked him away, reports the Shillong Times.

‘Though the petitioner pleaded for Ahmed’s bail, the fact that the police could not investigate into the matter as the man in question is still undergoing treatment made it impossible for the Bangladesh politician to get bail,’ said the government lawyer.

During the hearing in the court, the petitioner pleaded that Salahuddin Ahmed was sick and needed to be taken to foreign countries for better medical treatment.  

Several documents such as passports and visas of the countries which he visited for medical treatment were also submitted before the court.

Meghalaya police arrested BNP joint secretary general Salahuddin Ahmed on 11 May as he was roaming in Golf Links area of Shillong after nearly two months of his disappearance.  

Since he had no valid papers, identity proof or travel permit, he was arrested by Meghalaya police and booked under the Foreigners Act. On 12 May, Salahuddin phoned his wife Hasina from Meghalaya Institute of Mental Health & Neurological Science (MIMHANS) of India asking her to go there.