Shahjahan Siraj, ex-secy Zabiullah granted bail
The High Court (HC) yesterday granted ad-interim bail for six months to former BNP lawmaker Shahjahan Siraj and former secretary Ismail Zabiullah in three corruption cases against them.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court (SC) upheld a HC order granting bail to Shamim Iskander, brother of BNP chairperson and Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Khaleda Zia, in a corruption case.
A HC bench of Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice Md Rais Uddin granted bail to Shahjahan Siraj in two cases, and to Zabiullah in a case after hearing separate petitions filed by the accused.
Shahjahan, however, cannot be released from jail following the HC orders, since he has been shown arrested in other cases, lawyers said.
But there is no legal bar to the release of Zabiullah from jail following the HC order, as he is not arrested in any other case, they said.
CASE AGAINST SHAHJAHAN
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the two cases with Joydevpur Police Station on May 20 last year against Shahjahan and eight others on charges of illegally leasing out government lands in Gazipur during the tenure of four-party alliance government.
In response to two separate quashment petitions filed by Shahjahan, the HC yesterday stayed the proceedings against the petitioner for six months and also issued rules upon ACC and the government to explain why the proceedings of the cases should not quashed.
CASE AGAINST ZABIULLAH
A special court in Dhaka on June 2 sent Zabiullah to jail on his surrender in connection with a case filed by ACC on charges of amassing illegal wealth and concealing information in his wealth statement. In this case, he was earlier convicted and sentenced to 13 years in jail.
Upon an appeal filed by Zabiullah against his conviction, the court granted bail to him for six months.
CASE AGAINST SHAMIM
A four-member full bench of the Appellate Division headed by Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim yesterday dismissed an appeal filed by ACC against the HC order that granted bail to Shamim Iskander in a case filed against him on charges of accumulating illegal wealth and concealing information in his wealth statement.
Following this order, the HC order will remain valid, the lawyers said.
Barrister Rafique-Ul Huq appeared for Shamim Iskander, Advocate AJ Mohammad Ali argued for Shahjahan Siraj and Advocate Ahsanul Karim for Zabiullah, while Advocate MA Aziz Khan stood for ACC and deputy attorney general Jahid Sarwar Kajal for the government.
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