Chittagong: A Chittagong court on Tuesday turned down a police prayer to take BNP leader Aslam Chowdhury into their custody for interrogation and asked the law enforcers to quiz the leader at jail gate in connection with a case filed under explosive substances act.

Court officials said the court of Chittagong Metropolitan Magistrate Nazmul Hossain Chowdhury delivered the order.

Aslam was charged with opening fires and creating panic at Chawkbazar area in the city during the funeral prayer of war crime convict Motiur Rahman Nizami, also the former president of Jamaat-e-Islami, on 11 May 2016.

Chawkbazar Police sought seven days to interrogate Aslam in connection with the case, said Nirmalendu Bikash Chakrabarti, additional deputy commissioner (prosecution) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police.

Plainclothes arrested BNP joint secretary general Aslam from Dhaka’s Khilkhet area on 15 May and later brought charges of treason accusing him of conspiring to topple the government in collusion with the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.