Pintu gets bail in extortion case

Abdus Salam Pintu

A Tangail court yesterday granted bail to BNP central vice-president and former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu in an extortion case.
Pintu, also an accused in the case for grenade attack on AL rally in the capital on August 21, 2004, was brought to Tangail from Dhaka Central Jail in a prison van on Saturday night.
He was produced in the Senior Judicial Magistrate's Court in the extortion case at around 10:00am. As Pintu's lawyer Anisul Islam prayed for bail, Senior Judicial Magistrate Sheuly Rani Das granted the bail petition.
Awami League (AL) worker Zahidul Islam Bhuyan alias Lebu filed the case against Pintu and 10 others with Bhuapur Police Station on October 13 last year. The same court had earlier rejected the bail petition thrice.
In the case statement, the complainant said a gang of 10 on instructions of Abdus Salam Pintu stormed into his house at Gabchara in the upazila on October 1, 2001 and demanded Tk 3 lakh from his wife Flora Begum.
“As my wife refused to oblige, the gang vandalised the house and took away money and other valuables,” he said in the statement.
Of the 10 other accused, eight were earlier granted bail by the High Court while the remaining two are now staying abroad, police said.