SC upholds HC orders granting bail to Ariful, Golam

The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday upheld the High Court (HC) orders that granted bail to suspended Sylhet City Corporation Mayor Ariful Haque Chowdhury and Habiganj Municipality Mayor Golam Kibria Gaus in two separate cases.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division of the SC headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the orders dismissing two separate petitions filed by the government seeking a stay on the HC orders.

Advocate M Masud Rana, a lawyer for Ariful and Gaus, told The Daily Star that there was no legal bar to his clients' release from jail following the SC orders. 

On December 11, the HC granted bail to Ariful, also a BNP leader, and Gaus in response to separate bail petitions filed by them in two cases filed under the Explosive Substances Act, 1908.

The case against Ariful was filed in regard to a June 2004 incident of bomb blast at a public gathering in Sunamganj's Dirai Bazaar that left a Juba League activist dead and 29 injured.

Gaus is an accused in another case filed under the same act in connection with the murder of former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria. Kibria and four others were killed in a grenade attack on a rally in Habiganj on January 27, 2005.