Sikder Group Managing Director: Arrested on arrival, gets bail in 5 hours

Ron Haque Sikder

Ron Haque Sikder, managing director of Sikder Group, got ad interim bail yesterday five hours after his arrest upon arrival at Dhaka airport in a case filed over abducting, torturing and opening fire on two Exim Bank officials over a loan permission.

A Gulshan division team of Detective Branch of police arrested Ron soon after he landed at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 10:00am, Golam Saqlain, additional deputy commissioner (Gulshan division) of DB police, told The Daily Star.

He came to Dhaka from Dubai due to the death of his father, he added.

Later in the day, DB Sub-inspector Md Ripon Uddin, also the investigation officer of the case, produced Ron before the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Md Ashek Imam.

The court granted him bail at 3:15pm upon a bond of Tk 5,000 with two guarantors after he was produced before the court with a forwarding report.

In the forwarding report, the IO said the accused along with his brother Dipu Haque Sikder left the country on May 25 last year to avoid arrest.

So, he appealed to the court to keep him in jail until the investigation is completed, the IO added.

General Recording Officer SI Md Alamgir Hossain told the court that Ron is an accused in an attempted murder case and went abroad to evade arrest and so should be sent to jail.

The defence lawyer, on the other hand, submitted a petition seeking bail on grounds that his client's father died recently and his namaz-e-janaza will be held tomorrow. Moreover, Ron is ill and so his bail petition should be granted on humanitarian grounds, the lawyer added.

The magistrate granted bail to the accused until the next scheduled date set on March 10.

On May 19 last year, Exim Bank Director Lt Col (retd) Serajul Islam filed the case accusing Ron and his brother Dipu of torturing and trying to kill the bank's Managing Director Mohammed Haider Ali Miah and Additional Managing Director Mohammad Feroz Hossain.

The two top officials were attacked after they refused to falsely inflate the value of Sikder brothers' property that would be mortgaged for a loan of Tk 500 crore, according to the case statement.

The brothers also tortured the two officials while confining them to a house in Banani and forced them to sign on a blank paper at gunpoint, reads the case.

On May 25 last year, six days after the case was registered, the two brothers fled to Bangkok on an air ambulance that left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport with government permission.

Police on June 1 last year seized Ron's Range Rover which was allegedly used during the attempted murder.

A team of Gulshan division police seized the white SUV from Sikder House on Banani Road-11 of Dhaka.

On July 20 the same year, the High Court fined Ron and his brother for seeking anticipatory bail from abroad in the case.

Rejecting their bail petition, an HC virtual bench ordered the siblings to give 5,000 personal protective equipment (PPE) each as fine to the Prime Minister's Relief and Welfare Fund in two weeks to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ron and Dipu have also been asked to file a report with the Supreme Court registrar general's office after submitting the PPE to the fund.

The HC bench of Justice Md Ashraful Kamal passed the order after holding hearing on the anticipatory bail petition filed by the two brothers.