SC cancels HC bail for BNP leaders
The Supreme Court yesterday scrapped the High Court orders that granted bail to BNP leaders MK Anwar, Abdul Awal Mintoo and Aman Ullah Aman in 52 vandalism and arson cases.
It also directed them to surrender within a week before the respective lower courts.
The cases were filed with different police stations in Dhaka and elsewhere during the hartal and blockades enforced by the BNP-led 20-party-alliance since January 5 this year.
The apex court yesterday said the lower courts were allowed to independently consider bail prayers of the accused BNP leaders after their surrender in the cases.
The SC, however, upheld the HC orders that granted bail to BNP leader Tariqul Islam in four similar cases.
A four-member SC bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha came up with the orders after hearing 56 petitions filed by the government seeking a stay on the HC bail orders.
Additional Attorney General Murad Reza told The Daily Star that Anwar, Mintoo and Aman sought anticipatory bail five to six months after the filing of the cases and that was why the SC cancelled their bail prayers.
The SC upheld the bail of Tariqul on special grounds since he is sick, he added.
The Appellate Division yesterday also extended its chamber judge's stay order on an HC rule that granted ad-interim bail to local BNP leader Kamrul Huda in two cases linked with the torching of a bus at Chouddagram in Comilla on February 3, in which seven people died and 25 to 26 others received injuries.
Murad Reza told this correspondent that Kamrul would not be released from jail following the SC order.
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