A High Court bench on Thursday directed the government and the police to explain why they should not be directed to produce BNP leader M Elias Ali, who went missing on April 17, before it to demonstrate that he was not being held without lawful authority.
The home secretary, inspector general of police, the Special Branch additional IGP, Criminal Investigation Department additional IGP, Dhaka deputy commissioner, Rapid Action Battalion director-general, Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner, Detective Branch deputy commissioner and the officers-in-charge of the Banani and the Gulshan police stations were asked to respond the rule within 10 days.
The bench of Justice Farid Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif issued the rule after another bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Jahangir Hossain cancelled its order on suo moto directing the police to make all out efforts to find out Elias.
In the afternoon, the bench headed by Justice Farid Ahmed issued the rule after
hearing a Habeas Corpus writ petition filed by Elias’ wife Tahsina Rushdir Luna seeking a direction on the government to produce her husband before the court.
Earlier in the morning, the bench headed by Justice Shamsuddin Chowdhury issued the suo moto on the inspector general of the police, the Rapid Action Battalion director-general and the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner after Supreme Court lawyer Manzill Murshid had drawn the court’s attention to several newspaper reports that Elias had been abducted forcefully.
The court also heard additional attorney general MK Rahman and deputy attorney general ABM Altaf Hossain on the issue. 
Meanwhile, the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court of Dhaka, directed the Banani police station to submit a report to it every 48 hours on the progress of investigation into general diary lodged by Elias’ wife over the incident of his missing.
The bench led by Justice Farid Ahmed scheduled to hear the petition of Elias’s wife in the afternoon after it was submitted in the morning.
The court then kept the matter pending and asked Moudud appearing for Elias’s wife to move to the bench which had issued the suo moto.   
Moudud Ahmed said that the writ petition was filed in the morning and its copy was served to the government.
The bench should not pass any suo moto on the issue if an aggrieved comes with a writ petition on the similar matter, said Moudud.
He also prayed for cancelling the suo moto.        
Being assured that the suo moto would be suspended, Moudud appeared again to the bench, led by Justice Farid Ahemd, and said that the previous court issued the suo moto as it was not aware of the writ petition.