DIG Mizan seeks bail in advance

Mizanur Rahman. Photo: Collected

Mizanur Rahman, suspended deputy inspector general of police, yesterday filed a petition with the High Court seeking anticipatory bail in a corruption case.

He submitted the petition through his lawyer Md Asaduzzaman Khan, saying that he would face the trial proceedings of the case before the lower court and he would not leave the country if he is granted bail in the case.

Khurshid Alam Khan, the lawyer of the Anti-Corruption Commission that lodged the graft case against Mizan, told The Daily Star that he received a copy of the bail petition filed by the top police official.

The HC is yet to fix a date for holding a hearing on the bail petition, he said.

Khurshid said ACC lawyers would oppose the bail petition of Mizan during its hearing.

“We will not spare Mizanur Rahman in any legal procedure and the Supreme Court has asked whether Mizanur Rahman is more powerful than the Anti-Corruption Commission,” he added. 

On June 24, the ACC filed the case with its Integrated District Office in Dhaka against Mizan on charges of amassing over Tk 3 crore beyond his known source of income.

Mizan has recently alleged that ACC’s enquiry officer Khandaker Enamul Basir took Tk 40 lakh bribe with a false promise of exonerating him of all charges.

The police official came under the scanner in January last year when he was ac-cused of forcibly marrying and torturing a woman. He was soon withdrawn from his post at the Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

On June 16, the SC’s Appellate Division asked the ACC why DIG Mizan was still not being arrested over the corruption allegation.

“Is he more powerful than the ACC? Allegation has been brought against an offi-cial [Basir] of the commission over taking bribe, which is very alarming for the country,” the apex court said while hearing an appeal filed by the ACC challenging a High Court verdict that granted bail to Jasmine Islam, chairman of Hallmark Group, in a graft case.