No Lawyer Appears For Hindu Monk Chinmoy Das In Bangladesh

Threatened by Islamists in Bangladesh, no lawyer stepped in to represent a Hindu monk who had been fighting for minority rights and jailed for sedition. Monk Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari will have to spend a month in jail even as his previous lawyer is battling for life in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a hospital after an attack at his home.

The Chattogram court postponed the hearing to January 2, according to sources, after Bar Association lawyers barred any legal professional from representing the Hindu religious leader.

Das, a former member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), was arrested from Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on November 25. Chattogram’s Magistrate court denied him bail and sent him to police custody.

On Tuesday, lawyers refused to appear for him during the bail hearing, following which the Chattogram court adjourned the proceedings. Sources revealed that an advocate, identified as Rabindra Ghosh, came from Dhaka, travelling almost 250 km, to attend the court hearing. However, he was denied entry to the court premises by the locals.

In a separate incident, an advocate, who had defended Bangladesh’s Hindu monk Chinmoy Das, was “brutally" attacked in the neighbouring country, claimed ISKCON Kolkata spokesperson Radharamn Das on Monday. Advocate Ramen Roy, reportedly in critical condition at a hospital, was attacked after several people ransacked his home, Radharamn Das claimed, fueling further tension amid reports of attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh. Many lawyers in Bangladesh, however, have denied any such event.

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Sammilita Sanatani Jagran Jote has alleged that approximately 70 Hindu lawyers were "falsely sued in a case to prevent their participation" in a bail hearing for their spokesperson Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari, according to a report by Bangladeshi daily The Business Standard.

Sources within Das's legal team said that Muslim advocates who were part of the Chittagong Bar Association have been constantly intimidating and issuing threats to their Hindu counterparts who had earlier appeared for Das. They say the threats have been persistent. A monk from Chattogram said on November 27 that chambers of some lawyers had been ransacked and Hindu lawyers threatened.

The attack on his lawyer and threats to other lawyers by Islamists is an attempt to silence the voice of Hindus, the biggest minority group, in Bangladesh.