Dhaka: Police in Bangladesh said on Tuesday they had jailed Tareque Rahman, son of Bangladesh's former prime minister Khaleda Zia, after a court remanded him for a month pending full investigation of corruption charges.
A Dhaka magistrate's court gave the order late on Monday after it rejected Tareque's bail petition.
Tareque, the elder son of Begum Khaleda Zia, was arrested on March 7 in an army-led drive against corruption and misuse of power. A joint secretary-general of Khaleda's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Tareque is among more than 160 senior political figures detained since Bangladesh imposed a state of emergency on January 11.
Khaleda ended her five-year term as prime minister in October and handed power to an interim authority, now headed by former central bank chief Fakhruddin Ahmed.
Fakhruddin has vowed to eliminate corruption from politics and government before announcing a date for parliamentary elections. An election planned for January 22 was postponed in the wake of widespread political violence.
Police said Tareque, often tipped as Khaleda's political heir, was shifted to the Dhaka Central Jail from the court around midnight on Monday. Usually courts finish their day's business before sunset but sometimes sit at night for security reasons, police said.
Police produced Tareque in the court in a bullet-proof jacket after four days of questioning by joint security forces, led by the army. He is facing charges of amassing huge wealth through corrupt means.
Among the accusations before the court is that he took a 10 million taka ($145,000) bribe from a businessman, police said.
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