Sylhet mayor denied bail

A Habiganj court yesterday rejected the bail prayer of the suspended Sylhet City Corporation Mayor Ariful Haque Chowdhury, who stands accused in former finance minister SAMS Kibria murder case.

District and Sessions Judge Mahbub Ul Islam turned down the prayer as Public Prosecutor Akbar Hossain and Asma Kibria's lawyer Alamgir Bhuiyan protested.

Ariful's counsels Habiganj district Bar Association president Ashraful Bari Noman and its general secretary Manzur Uddin Shahin and others moved for the bail. 

The LGRD ministry on January 7 suspended Ariful, also a central BNP leader, for his being chargesheeted in the case.

On December 30 last year, Senior Judicial Magistrate's Court of Habiganj sent Ariful to jail on his surrender in the case. Two days before, the same court sentenced Habiganj Municipality Mayor GK Gaus, also general secretary of the district unit BNP, to prison on his surrender.

The court on December 21 issued arrest warrants for the 11 accused in the murder case, accepting the third supplementary charge sheet filed by the Criminal Investigation Department on November 13 last year.

The accused include former premier Khaleda Zia's political secretary Harris Chowdhury, Ariful and GK Gaus. 

On January 27, 2005, Kibria, the then opposition lawmaker, was killed along with four others, including his nephew, in a grenade attack at Baidderbazar of Habiganj Sadar upazila when he was coming out after addressing a rally.

Kibria served as the finance minister in the Awami League-led government from 1996 to 2001.