Tk 304 crore money laundering: HC grants conditional bail to 2 former NSU trustees
The High Court today (November 10, 2022) granted conditional bail to two former members of North South University's trustee board -- MA Kashem and Rehana Rahman -- in a Tk 304 crore money laundering case.
According to conditions, Kashem and Rehana cannot enter the NSU premises and cannot leave the country without permission from the court concerned.
The HC bench of Justice SM Kuddus Zaman and Justice Fahmida Quader granted bail to them after hearing two separate petitions filed by accused Kashem and Rehana Rahman seeking bail in the case.
Kashem and Rehana will get released from Kashimpur jail if the Appellate Division does not stay the HC verdict that granted bail to them, their lawyer Sayeed Ahmed Raza told The Daily Star.
He said the HC granted bail to his clients considering their old age, anomalies in the first information report and insufficient evidence in the investigation report.
Meanwhile, Anti-Corruption Commission's lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told this correspondent that the watchdog will move an appeal before the Appellate Division challenging the HC bail order.
On August 2 this year, another HC bench refused to grant bail to Kashem and Rehana, but issued two rules asking the state and the ACC to explain why they should not be granted bail in the case.
Senior lawyer Sayeed Ahmed Raza and lawyer Shah Monjurul Hoque appeared for Rehana and Kashem while senior lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan and Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin Manik represented the ACC and state respectively during the hearing.
On May 22, the HC bench led by Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder rejected anticipatory bail petitions filed by the then four members of NSU trustee board in the same case and also ordered Shahbagh police to arrest them immediately and to produce them before the trial court in 24 hours in connection with the case.
Accordingly, the four accused -- MA Kashem, Benajir Ahmed, Rehana Rahman and Mohammed Shajahan, who appeared before the HC bench on that day for bail, were produced before the trial court on May 23.
On May 23, the lower court sent them to jail rejecting their bail prayers in the case.
The ACC filed the case against the four accused and also NSU Board of Trustees Chairperson Azim Uddin Ahmed. Ashaloy Housing and Developers Managing Director Amin Md Hilaly was also made accused in the case.
ACC Deputy Director Farid Ahmed Patwary filed the case with its integrated district office in Dhaka on May 5.
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