Bangladeshi lawyer of Iskcon monk in India for treatment

KOLKATA: Rabindra Ghosh, Bangladeshi advocate fighting an uphill battle for jailed Iskcon monk Chinmoy Krishna Das, reached India on Sunday evening for medical treatment, much to the relief of his family members, who were worried about his safety in the neighbouring country. Ghosh, 75, will be staying with his son, Rahul, who lives in Barrackpore in West Bengal with his wife and child.

Ghosh, a senior lawyer of Bangladesh Supreme Court, has been representing minority voices in Bangladesh for over two decades. He hit the headlines internationally when he, while moving an application in a Chittagong court to fix an early bail hearing for Chinmoy Krishna, allegedly came under attack from a group of 30 lawyers who entered the courtroom without permission.

Ghosh, originally from the Unosottar Para locality in Chittagong, stays in Dhaka with his wife Krishna, a retired schoolteacher. Krishna stays alone in Dhaka often while Ghosh is travelling.

"I have been in constant touch with my parents. After the Chittagong court incident, I spoke to my father in Dhaka. He said he had lodged a police complaint in Chittagong after he was issued threats by fundamentalists. He might have been provided police protection in Chittagong, but he will have to stay unprotected on reaching Dhaka," Rahul told TOI from Barrackpore.

Rahul said he has requested his father to stay on in Barrackpore until the situation normalises in Bangladesh.

But Ghosh is said to have told his friends and colleagues in Bangladesh that he would return soon to continue the fight against rights violations in his country. "He is a man of principles. Even we have become used to constant threats. It's the price he - and, by extension, our family - has had to pay for keeping up the fight. Even my sisters, who live in Canada, are worried," Rahul said.

Ghosh, a "Muktijoddha" (fought in the Bangladesh liberation war) has never even harboured the thought of migrating elsewhere. "My daughters have asked my wife and I to move to Canada several times. Why should I leave my motherland and the oppressed?" Ghosh told TOI.

He even refuses to let age catch up with his fight. "I appealed to several local lawyers to fight the case for the monk, but there was no positive response. At this age, it is difficult for me to travel to Chittagong from Dhaka, a distance of nearly 250km. We will appeal to the high court to shift the case to Dhaka," Ghosh said.

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