Bangladesh court rejects bail plea of Chinmoy Das in sedition case, Iskcon says ‘it’s unfortunate’

A Bangladeshi court on Thursday once again rejected the bail plea of Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das months after he was arrested on sedition charges for allegedly disrespecting the country’s national flag.

A report by The Daily Star quoted Metropolitan Public Prosecutor Advocate Mofizur Haque Bhuiyan as saying, “Chattogram Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Saiful Islam rejected the bail plea after hearing arguments from both sides for around 30 minutes.”

Das was represented by a legal team of 11 lawyers led by advocate Apurba Kumar Bhattacharjee.

The rejection of the monk has invited criticism from Isckon with its vice president, Radharaman Das, calling the move “unfortunate”.

“We all were very hopeful that today he will get bail. He’s a, you know, you know, he’s a Brahmachari. He’s a monk. And he was there, he was inside jail for last 42 years, 42 days. And we also heard that his health is not good. So we are very hopeful that the judge will grant him bail,” he said.

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“But if his bail has been rejected, then this is very unfortunate. Whole world was looking towards this hearing and, and we are waiting. We’ll see why the judge refused his bail.”

Das, a spokesperson for the Bangladesh Sammilita Sanatani Jagran Jote, was arrested last month at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport while en route to Chattogram for a rally. Denied bail, he was remanded to custody until January 2 by a Bangladeshi court.

Minorities, especially Hindus, have been facing religious persecution in Bangladesh ever since the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last year. In one of her first addresses since she fled Dhaka, Hasina lambasted the current interim government for not protecting minorities.

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“What is this persecution of minorities for? Why are they being ruthlessly attacked?” she said.

She added, “Today, I am being accused of genocide. In reality, Yunus has been involved in genocide in a meticulously designed manner. Hindus, Buddhists, Christians – no one has been spared. Eleven churches have been razed, temples and Buddhist shrines have been broken. When Hindus protested, the Iskcon leader was arrested.”