Dhaka: Separate courts in Dhaka on Tuesday granted police to question BNP chairperson’s adviser and journalist leader Shawkat Mahmud for four more days in four cases filed with Paltan, Motijheel and Rampura police stations in the city.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ali Mahmud Sheikh put Shawkat Mahmud on one-day police custody in a case filed with Rampura Police Station while Metropolitan Magistrate Maruf Hossain allowed police to interrogate him for three days in the three other cases filed with Paltan and Motijheel police stations.

Police sought 40 days’ remand for the journalist leader in the four cases while Shawkat Mahmud’s counsel M Sanaullah Miah filed bail petitions for him.

Earlier on 27 August, the court placed Shawkat Mahmud on police custody for one day in a case filed with Lalbagh police station.

On 24 August, the court placed him on four-day police custody in four cases filed with Paltan and Motijheel police stations.

On 22 August, a court sent Shawkat Mahmud to jail on the expiry of his three-day police custody in an arson case filed with the city’s Ramna Police Station.

Even on 19 August, the court placed Shawkat Mahmud on police custody for three days after his arrest from in front of Samurai Convention Centre in the city’s Panthapath area on 18 August.

Miscreants set three vehicles, including two buses and a CNG-run auto-rickshaw, on fire by hurling petrol bombs in the city’s Gulistan and Paltan areas on 2 and 3 February respectively.

Paltan thana police filed three separate cases against Shawkat Mahmud and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal President Rajib Ahsan in connection with the arson attacks.

Besides, miscreants set a staff bus of ‘Titash Gas’ ablaze by hurling petrol bombs on RK Mission Road in the city’s Motijheel area on 3 February.

Police filed a case against Shawkat Mahmud with Motijheel Police Station on that day.