'Former' ISKCON associate jailed for sedition, Bangladesh media reports

Blaming Indian TV channels for spreading fake news, newspapers in Dhaka have reported that ‘former’ ISKCON associate Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari was arrested in the port city of Chattogram (Chittagong) and jailed following a complaint of sedition filed against him in October 2024.

Brahmachari was arrested in the vicinity of Dhaka airport on Monday and produced in court on Tuesday at Chattogram. After the court rejected his application for bail and sent him to jail, his supporters resorted to violence and clashed with the police and lawyers.

The arrest or the clash had nothing to do with attacks on Hindu religious minorities in Bangladesh, and contrary to reports in the Indian media the lawyer, Saiful Islam, was not defending Brahmachari.

Brahmachari and 18 others were charged with sedition for allegedly hoisting a saffron flag above Bangladesh’s national flag at the New Market intersection in Chittagong on 25 October. Videos of the flags went viral and the case was filed by one Md Feroze Khan on the night of 30 October under sedition laws at the Kotwali police station.

Those named as accused in the case are Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari (38), former Chittagong divisional organising secretary of ISKCON, Ajay Dutta (34), coordinator of the Hindu Jagran Manch's Chittagong division; Leela Raj Das Brahmachari (48), principal of the Prabartak Iskcon Temple in the city; and others such as Gopal Das Tipu, Dr Kathak Das, Amit Dhar, Roni Das, Rajib Das, Krishna Kumar Dutta, Jiku Chowdhury, Newton Dey, Tushar Chakraborty Rajib, Mithun Dey, Rupan Dhar, Rimon Dutta, Sukanta Das, Biswajit Gupta, Rajesh Chowdhury, and Hriday Das, Dhaka Tribune reported.

During a rally at Laldighi Maidan, a religious flag associated with ISKCON was reportedly placed over the national flag. The complainant alleged that it was an act of "desecration" and "contempt for the country’s sovereignty".

On Tuesday, after the court rejected Brahmachari's plea for bail and remanded him to jail custody, his followers, including a few lawyers, stopped the prison van, punctured a tyre of the vehicle and allegedly refused to disperse.

Brahmachari was heard calling upon his followers to remain calm from inside the prison van. "We are not against the state and the government. We, the Sanatanis, are a part of the state.... We will not do anything to destabilise the state and destroy peaceful coexistence. We will hold a peaceful protest by controlling our emotions and turning them into strength," he said.

Chinmoy, spokesperson for Sammilita Sanatani Jagaran Jote, formed in August this year following attacks on the minority community, was known for making impassioned speeches.

The jote (alliance) issued a statement last night, stating that the group that killed the lawyer was trying to shift the blame on Hindus, and demanded a judicial probe into the killing of the lawyer. Kanchan Acharjee, a central leader of the jote, told the Daily Star that those who killed the lawyer must be brought to book.

Many members of the Hindu community gathered on the court premises and peacefully demonstrated for Brahmachari's release, he said, but law enforcers attacked and dispersed them, he added. "We have no idea who killed the lawyer," he claimed.

(Compiled on the basis of reports published in Dhaka Tribune and the Daily Star, Dhaka)