First 24 Hours After an Arrest in Bangladesh: Your Rights, Remand & How to Get Bail

In this guide: Step 1: find out where and why · Step 2: the arrest and what the police must do · Step 3: production before the Magistrate · Remand · Bail · What the family should bring · What not to do

The short answer

An arrested person must be told why they are arrested, can consult a lawyer of their choice, and must be produced before the nearest Magistrate within 24 hours, not counting the journey. Since the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Act 2026, the police must also make a written arrest memo, show identification, and inform a relative or friend within 24 hours. The first production before the Magistrate is where remand is granted or refused and where bail can first be asked for. Have an advocate there.

Step 1: find out where and why

Establish the police station, the case number (or GD number) and the sections alleged. Without these, no application can be drafted. Ask at the station, ask for the arrest memo, and write down the time and place of arrest and the names of the officers. If the station denies holding the person, tell an advocate at once. That denial itself is a serious matter.

Step 2: the arrest and what the police must do

• Carry visible identification and disclose their identity on request.
• Prepare a memorandum of arrest, witnessed by a family member or a respectable local person, recording the time and place.
• Tell the person they may inform a relative or friend and consult a lawyer, and inform that person within 24 hours.
• Arrange a medical examination if the person is injured or unwell, and record the findings.

Section 54 still allows arrest without a warrant in listed situations, but the 2026 Act narrowed it and requires reasons to be recorded, in line with the Appellate Division’s guidelines in Bangladesh v BLAST. An arrest on vague suspicion is now much easier to challenge before the Magistrate.

Step 3: production before the Magistrate

This hearing matters more than any other early step. The police will usually ask either for the person to be sent to jail (judicial custody) or for police remand. The advocate can oppose remand, apply for bail, ask for a medical examination, and put any mistreatment on record. A person who stands there unrepresented often ends up on a remand that a prepared advocate would have resisted.

Remand

Remand is not automatic. The police must justify it with the case diary, and the Magistrate must record reasons. Police custody is limited to 15 days in total in a case; any further detention is in jail. The person must be medically examined before and after police custody. If remand is granted, ask the court for lawyer access and for the interrogation to follow the guidelines the higher courts have laid down. Reporting injuries at the next production is essential.

Bail

• Bailable offences. Bail is a right. The police station or the court must grant it on proper sureties.
• Non-bailable offences. Bail is at the court’s discretion, not impossible. The law leans towards bail for women, children, the sick and the infirm. The Magistrate hears it first; if refused, the Sessions Judge; then the High Court Division.

An application with the case papers, the person’s NID, proof of address and ready sureties is far more likely to succeed than one attempted on the day with nothing in hand.

What the family should bring

• The arrested person’s NID or birth certificate and proof of address.
• Two sureties with their NIDs, preferably people with a fixed address or property in the district.
• Any medical records, if health is a concern.
• Proof of employment, study or family responsibilities, which helps the bail argument.

Our arrest checklist sets this out in printable form.

What not to do

• Do not try to “settle” it with money at the station. It does not end a case and can create a new one.
• Do not let the arrested person sign a statement they have not read. A confession has value only if recorded by a Magistrate under section 164 with safeguards; pressure to sign anything else should be reported.
• Do not wait for the next date. The first hearing shapes everything after it.

If you cannot afford a lawyer, the government legal aid helpline is 16699, and the District Legal Aid Office can appoint one.