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Former chief election commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda has given a statement before a Dhaka court in a case that accuses him of sedition and conducting a general election without the public vote.
He was brought before the court on Tuesday, after two rounds of questioning totalling eight days.
The Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) Inspector Syed Sajedur Rahman, the case’s investigating officer, submitted a plea to record Huda’s confession, saying he had agreed to speak “voluntarily”.
Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ziadur Rahman is recording the statement, said Sub-Inspector Rafiqul Islam of the prosecution division of the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station.
BNP National Executive Committee member Salahuddin Khan lodged the case at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station on Jun 22.
The case accuses three former CECs -- Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad (2014), Huda (2018), and Kazi Habibul Awal (2024) -- along with election commissioners who served during their respective terms.
Also named are ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, and former inspectors general of police Hassan Mahmud Khandaker, AKM Shahidul Hoque, Javed Patwary, Benazir Ahmed and Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun.
Huda was arrested on the day the case was filed.
He was grilled by police for four days following court approval the next day.
On Jun 27, he was sent for another four-day round of interrogation.
According to the case details, BNP leaders and activists were pushed out of the election process in all three general electiona through “mass arrests, intimidation, enforced disappearances, killings and trumped-up charges”.
The complaint says that despite holding constitutional positions, the accused violated the Constitution, breached electoral laws, interfered unlawfully in the voting process as government officials, and falsely declared candidates as elected MPs without securing public votes -- actions considered criminal under the law.
It claims that voters from every polling centre, especially those who were prevented from casting ballots, along with presiding officers, police personnel, and local residents, could serve as witnesses.
The seals and signatures on the ballot papers, if scrutinised, would reveal whether the votes were genuinely cast.
The charges against them include sedition, fraud, and embezzlement.
After Huda, former CEC Awal has also been arrested. Police have secured his remand as well.