Bribery Case: SC grants bail to Nazmul Huda

The Supreme Court yesterday granted bail to former BNP minister Nazmul Huda in a bribery case in which he was sentenced to four years' imprisonment by the High Court.

The apex court also permitted Nazmul Huda to move an appeal before it, against the HC verdict.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain passed the order after hearing a leave-to-appeal petition filed by Huda.

There is no legal bar for Nazmul Huda to get released from jail following the SC order, Advocate AF Hasan Ariff, a senior lawyer for Nazmul Huda, told The Daily Star. 

Nazmul Huda, who was sent to prison after he surrendered to a Dhaka court on January 6, moved the petition before the apex court chamber judge on January 8, seeking bail in the case.

The SC chamber judge on that day sent the petition to its full bench, denying him bail.

On November 8, 2017, the HC in a verdict commuted his jail term to four years from seven years in the bribery case, involving Tk 2.4 crore.

The HC said sentence of Huda's wife Sigma Huda in the case will be considered served as she had earlier served jail term in the case.

It also ordered Huda to surrender to the lower court in 45 days of receiving the verdict.

On January 8 last year, the SC rejected Huda's petition seeking permission to file an appeal against HC judgment without surrendering to the lower court.

On March 21, 2007, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case with Dhanmondi Police Station, saying that Huda, when he was communications minister of the BNP-led government, took Tk 2.4 crore as bribe from businessman Mir Zahir Hossain at different times in exchange for awarding him five government contracts for construction work, including road renovation, worth about Tk 30 crore.

A special court on August 27, 2007, sentenced Huda to seven years' rigorous imprisonment and his wife to three years' simple imprisonment.