Fictitious cases have been filed against the leaders and activists of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) as the government will have to rig votes in the upcoming parliamentary elections to stay in power, alleged BNP standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury on Friday.

The senior leader of the de facto opposition said this at the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Dhaka during the hearing of a murder case filed for the death of police constable Amirul Haque.

Amir Khasru was arrested from a house in Gulshan in the capital on Thursday midnight. Police produced him before the court on Friday afternoon with a 10-day remand plea.

Amir Khasru said BNP does not need to resort to violence as hundreds of thousands of people gather at the rallies of the party. People attend the rallies of BNP ignoring every threat of the government, including filing cases and attacks on them.

Besides Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, the party's media wing convener Zahir Uddin Swapon was also arrested on Thursday.

He was also produced at the court with a 10-day remand plea. The two leaders were kept at the lock-up first. Then they were brought to the courtroom at 3:30 pm.

Lawyers argued in favour of and against the remand and bail pleas.

Following this, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury spoke at the court taking permission from the judge.

He said, “Honourable court, the case that has been filed against me is not the first concocted case. Hundreds of such concocted and fictitious cases have been filed. A new word has been included in the Bengali lexicon. Such fictitious cases are filed nowhere in the world.”

Alleging that such fictitious cases have been filed against 5 million leaders and activists of the BNP, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury told the court, “This illegitimate and unelected government that has snatched the voting rights of the people has been been filing the fabricated cases to grab the power.”

“Honourable court, why would we resort to violence? We don’t need any violence. Hundreds of thousands of people turn up whenever we call for a rally. It is sad to say that the government has destroyed the state mechanism,” he stated.

The BNP leader further said, “Honourable court, the people have taken to the streets against this government. The cases have been filed to crush them (the agitating people). Nearly 2-3 million people turned up at the rally. Many incidents have taken place there but the government doesn’t have any interest in those. People are not being able to manage two square meals a day due to the spiralling prices. Money is being laundered from the country.”

After the hearing the court granted six days remand of Amir Khasru and Zahir Uddin Swapon each.