Haji Salim denied bail

The Supreme Court chamber judge today (June 6, 2022) refused to grant bail to Awami League lawmaker Haji Md Salim in a corruption case in which the High Court has upheld his conviction and 10 years of jail sentence.

Justice M Enayetur Rahim, chamber judge of the Appellate Division of the SC, did not grant bail to Haji Salim as the court has no jurisdiction to grant bail to such a convict, Anti-Corruption Commission's (ACC) lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star.

The apex court judge, however, sent the bail petition filed by Haji Salim to its full bench and also fixed August 1 for its hearing.

The SC chamber judge passed the order after hearing arguments from the lawyers concerned on the bail petition.

The chamber judge of the SC cannot grant bail to a convict, who has been sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, he argued.

Haji Salim submitted a nearly-1,200 page leave to appeal petition to the Appellate Division through his lawyer Sayeed Ahmed Raza on May 23 challenging the HC verdict that upheld his conviction and 10 years' jail sentence in the corruption case.

Haji Salim was taken to BSMMU on May 23 for treatment, a day after he was sent to Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj in the corruption case.

Haji Salim, who was sentenced for 10 years in the corruption case filed in 2008, surrendered before a Dhaka court on May 22 and sought bail.

On February 10 this year, the HC released the full text of a verdict directing Salim to surrender to the trial court in 30 days in connection with the case.

The HC on March 9 last year upheld a lower court's verdict where Salim was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a corruption case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission during the military-backed caretaker government in 2007.