5 former top cops out on bail

Five former top police officials, accused in an August 21 grenade attack case, were released in bail from Dhaka Central Jail yesterday.
Abu Taleb, senior superintendent of Dhaka jail, told The Daily Star that the five former cops walked out of prison around 12:30pm. Three of them are former Inspectors General of Police (IGPs).
Earlier on Monday, the three ex-IGPs -- Ashraful Huda, Shahudul Haque and Khoda Baksh Chowdhury -- and assistant superintendents of CID police Munshi Atiqur Rahman and Abdur Rashid and special superintendent of CID Ruhul Amin obtained bail in the case.
Of them, Abdur Rashid was yet to be released, as he is accused in another case in connection with the attack, Abu Taleb added.
Twenty-four people, including Awami League leader Ivy Rahman, were killed and around 200 others injured in the grisly attack on an AL rally at Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, 2004. The then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina narrowly escaped the attack.
Ashraful Huda and Shahudul Haque were charged with assisting financially and administratively in the execution of the attack.
Ruhul Amin, Atiqur Rahman, Abdur Rashid and Khoda Baksh were charged with misleading the case and falsely implicating a petty criminal named Joj Mia to save the real culprits.
Ruhul Amin, Atiqur Rahman and Abdur Rashid were the officials who led the first investigation when Khoda Baksh was IGP.
On March 18, a Dhaka court discharged the six from a case filed under the Explosives Substance Act.