A Sylhet court is to frame charges tomorrow against him and 18 others in connection with the case filed for graft in leasing out Shibganj kitchen market in Sylhet.

On April 30, a High Court (HC) division bench granted the SCC mayor ad interim bail but his release was delayed due to official formalities and public holidays.

The mayor went to Sylhet from Comilla following his release.

While talking to newsmen he claimed that the case was filed out of political grudge. "The BNP-led alliance government filed the case to harass me as they failed to defeat me in the election. I am hopeful of getting justice from the court," Kamran said.

The now defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption filed the case in 2003.

Sylhet police arrested Kamran early April 6 after Sylhet District and Sessions Judge Abdul Gafur issued an arrest warrant against him a day before in this connection. Following the arrest, the mayor was sent to Sylhet Central Jail. He was transferred to Comilla Central Jail three days later.

On April 22, a divisional special judge rejected the interim bail prayers of the

mayor and two other accused.

However, one of the accused, Abdul Wadud Khaled, a ward commissioner, died of a heart attack on April 30. He was allegedly absconding following the issuance of the arrest warrant.

Another accused Abdul Quaiyum Jalali Ponki, a ward commissioner, is also on bail since May 3.

However, the 16 other accused in the case are at large. On February 7, Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) filed the charge sheet against the 19 including 16 present and former ward commissioners of the SCC.

The ACC investigation officer of the case in the charge sheet said the accused people leased the kitchen market to the then ward commissioner Sajjadur Rahman's younger brother Azadur Rahman Azad, now a ward commissioner, on May 11, 2000 without any tender or approval from the ministry concerned.

They had misappropriated Tk 23 lakh through the corrupt practice, the charge sheet

read.