Attacking navy officer: Erfan Salim seeks cancellation of stay order on bail

Erfan Salim, son of Awami League lawmaker Haji Md Salim, today filed a petition with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court to vacate its stay order on his High Court bail in a case filed over attacking a navy officer in October last year.

Erfan, now in a Kashimpur jail, submitted the petition through his lawyers -- Abdul Baset Majumder and Sayed Ahmed Raza -- to the Appellate Division, with the certified copy of the HC verdict that granted him bail in the case on March 18.

Citing the petition, Erfan's lawyer Sayed Ahmed Raja told The Daily Star that his client has been languishing in jail for five months and 11 days, although the maximum punishment of the charge -- for which he has been arrested -- is six months. 

Erfan Salim's mother has died in November last year, and his father (Haji Md Salim), who has been infected with Covid-19, is receiving treatment at Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Dhaka. Therefore, the Appellate Division's stay order on his HC bail needs to be canceled for his release from jail, the lawyer said.

After a brief hearing today, chamber judge of the apex court Justice Hasan Foez Siddique set Thursday for holding a hearing on the petition.

Following a stay petition filed by the state, the apex court's chamber judge on March 28 stayed the HC verdict that granted bail to Erfan Salim in the case for four weeks.

Lt Wasif Ahmed Khan of Bangladesh Navy filed the case with Dhanmondi Police Station on October 25, against Erfan, 37, and three others -- AB Siddique Dipu, 45, Md Zahid, 35, and Md Mizanur Rahman, 30 -- for attacking him.