RAB arrests Dewanganj mayor on charges of assaulting an officer

Shahnewaz Shahanshah, the mayor of Jamalpur’s Dewanganj municipality, has been arrested on Thursday, two days after the government suspended him on charges of assaulting a public servant.

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) detained him from a hotel in capital’s Uttara.

“A raid was conducted on the Hotel De Meridian at Sector 6 following a tip-off that suspended Dewanganj mayor Shahnewaz Shahanshah has checked in there,” ANM Imran, an assistant director of RAB’s legal and media wing, told Bangla Tribune.

Details will be provided in a media call later on Thursday, he said.
On Monday, the Local Government Division suspended Shahanshah after he was sued for assaulting the upazila education officer during Victory Day celebrations in Dewanganj.

As a case was filed against mayor Shahanshah and investigation into the allegations against him has started. The government has suspended him under Section 31 (1) of the Local Government Act (Municipality), 2009, said the notification announcing his suspension.

The misbehaviour with Secondary Education Officer Md Meher Ullah by the mayor is beyond etiquette and tantamount to misconduct, misuse of public office, and it goes against the public interest, it added. 
Shahanshah was also expelled from the local unit of the Awami League over the same incident.

On December 16, Shahanshah assaulted Meher at a Victory Day program in the upazila.

Meher was conducting the program on the Dewanganj Government High School premises. He was calling the names of officials, inviting them to place wreaths in order.

As the mayor was eighth in the serial, he got angry and started hurling abuses at the official. When Meher protested, the mayor allegedly slapped him.

A case was filed against Shahanshah in this connection on that day.

Dhaka Tribune