Let HC grant anticipatory bail

The Supreme Court Bar Association yesterday said the recent Supreme Court guidelines curtailing the High Court's powers in granting anticipatory bail to people were "questionable and contrary to justice”.
During an urgent general meeting at its south hall, the association leaders called on the chief justice to provide all senior, experienced and competent HC judges with the jurisdiction to hear and dispose of anticipatory bail petitions.
Regarding these bail prayers, the Appellate Division issued some guidelines in a verdict last month and expressed disappointment at an HC bench for “failure to follow its guidelines” in giving anticipatory bail to BNP leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain in a money laundering case.
Yesterday, the SCBA issued a resolution on the decisions it took at the meeting with President Khandker Mahbub Hossain in the chair.  
The HC now expresses reluctance to hear anticipatory bail applications following a recent SC verdict, and as a result, innocent litigants are being victim of police harassment, the resolution said.
It said police filed numerous cases for bribery and corruption, and innumerable unknown people were accused along with the named ones in most cases.
As police do an “arrest business” by threatening people to implicate in cases, the innocents come to the HC for anticipatory bail, it added.