bail
BNP’s Salam, Annie freed from jail
BNP leaders Abdus Salam and Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie were freed from jail on bail on Wednesday evening.
They walked out of Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj around 6 pm after the bail order reached the jail authorities, said BNP’s media cell member Sayrul Kabir Khan.
Read more: Nayapaltan clash: BNP’s Salam, Annie get 6-month interim bail
Leaders and activists of BNP's Dhaka Metropolitan South received them at the jail gate.
On January 16, the High Court granted BNP's Dhaka Metropolitan South convener Abdus Salam and publication secretary Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie six months’ interim bail in a case over the clash between police and the party activists in the capital’s Nayapaltan.
On December 7 last year, a Swechchasebak Dal leader was killed and around 50 others were injured in a clash between police and the BNP activists in front of the party’s Nayapaltan central office, ahead of its December 10 rally.
Police arrested 470 BNP activists and leaders in connection with the clash and they were sued in two cases filed with Paltan and Motijheel police stations.
Read more: Nayapaltan clash: 445 BNP activists including Rizvi, Annie sent to jail, 2 get bail
Abdus Salam and Annie were arrested on the same day following the clash.
A Dhaka court sent 445 BNP leaders and activists including Annie and Salam to jail in two cases filed over the violence and order to give division in jail to the five leaders on the following day.
Party’s Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, Chairperson’s Special Assistant Shimul Biswash, Joint Secretary General Khairul Kabir Khokon, former organizational secretary Fazlul Haque Milon, Co-Organisational Secretary Selimuzzaman, are among others who were sent to jail in the case.
Nayapaltan clash: BNP’s Salam, Annie get 6-month interim bail
The High Court on Monday granted BNP leaders Abdus Salam and Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie six months’ interim bail in a case over the clash between police and the party activists in the capital’s Nayapaltan on December 7 last year.
The HC bench of Justice Md Akram Hossain Chowdhury and Justice Shahed Nuruddin passed the bail order.
The court issued a rule questioning why the BNP leaders should not be granted permanent bail.
Read more: Anti-state plot: SC stays bail of BNP leader Aslam
Senior lawyer Zainul Abedin and lawyer Zahirul Islam Sumon appeared for the two BNP leaders in the court.
On December 7 last year, a Swechchasebak Dal leader was killed and around 50 others were injured in a clash between police and the BNP activists in front of the party’s Nayapaltan central office, ahead of its December 10 rally.
Police arrested 470 BNP activists and leaders in connection with the clash and they were sued in two cases filed with Paltan and Motijheel police stations.
BNP's Dhaka Metropolitan South convener Abdus Salam and publication secretary Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie were arrested on the same day following the clash.
Read more: SC upholds bail of Fakhrul and Abbas, no bar to release
A Dhaka court sent 445 BNP leaders and activists including Annie and Salam to jail in two cases filed over the violence and order to give division in jail to the five leaders on the following day.
Party’s Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, Chairperson’s Special Assistant Shimul Biswash, Joint Secretary General Khairul Kabir Khokon, former organizational secretary Fazlul Haque Milon, Co-Organisational Secretary Selimuzzaman, are among others who were sent to jail in the case.
'Offensive content against PM': Appellate Division upholds bail of Rajbari Mahila Dal leader
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Sunday (January 15, 2023) upheld the High Court order granting bail to Sonia Akter Smrity, a Mahila Dal leader of Rajbari, in a case filed over posting "offensive" content on Facebook against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Hasan Foyez Siddiqui passed the order withdrawing the stay order of the Chamber Court.
Senior Advocate AJ Mohammad Ali, Barrister Kayser Kamal and Barrister Ruhul Quddus Kazal appeared in the court for Smriti. Additional Attorney General Sheikh Mohammad Morshed represented the state.
Read more: Defaming PM: Chamber Judge stays bail to Rajbari Mahila Dal leader
Now there is no bar to the release of the Mahila Dal leader, Barrister Kayser Kamal said.
Smrity, wife of Md Khokon Mia of No 3 Beradanga area of Rajbari Sadar, is a member of Jatiyatabadi Mahila Dal’s Rajbari district unit.
On November 2 last year, Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division, M Enayetur Rahim, stayed the bail order granted by the High Court till November 7.
The High Court granted interim bail to Smrity in the case on November 1.
Read more: Rajbari Mohila Dal member arrested under DSA for 'comment on PM'
Police arrested Smrity on October 4 in a case filed under the Digital Security Act (DSA) for posting offensive status on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Facebook.
Arefin Chowdhury, member secretary of Rajbari district Bangabandhu Sangskritik Jote, lodged an FIR against her.
On October 5, Judge Kaisun Nahar Surma of Rajbari No 1 Judicial Magistrate Court rejected Smrity’s bail plea and ordered to send her to jail.
On October 26, Rajbari Sessions Judge Court also denied bail to Smrity which prompted her to seek bail from the HC.
Read More: Fardin's death: Bushra finally granted bail
In her bail plea, Smrity requested the HC to consider her as a woman and a mother of two children.
According to the FIR, the accused BNP activist made "insulting remarks" about PM Sheikh Hasina, also president of the ruling Awami League, from her personal Facebook account in two separate statuses on August 31 and September 28.
Rape, murder of O-level student: HC rejects lone accused’s bail plea
The High Court on Wednesday rejected the bail petition Fardin Iftekhar Dihan in a case filed over the rape and subsequent murder of an O-level student in Kalabagan area of the city.
The HC bench of Justice SM Emdadul Hoque and Justice KM Zahid Sarwar Kajol passed the order after deposing of the accused’s appeal.
The court also ordered completing the trial of the case quickly.
Read more: Kalabagan rape case: Lone accused Dihan indicted
Senior Lawyer Joynal Abedin and Qazi Ferdousul Hasan appeared for the bail plea in the court while Deputy Attorney General Sujit Chatterjee represented the state.
Dihan appealed to the High Court as trial court rejected his bail plea, said Sujit Chatterjee.
On January 7, 2021, law enforcers recovered the body of the 17-year-old girl from a city hospital and arrested her boyfriend Fardin Iftekhar Dihan, 18 and three others in this connection.
A case was filed over the death of the girl, who was “sexually assaulted” and “killed”. Later, the victim’s father filed the case against Dihan on the night of the incident.
On January 9, law enforcers released three youths after interrogation over the matter.
Read more: O-level student ‘rape, murder’: Court permits drug test on Dihan
Dihan, who is believed to have raped and killed her at his family flat in Kalabagan area, gave a confessional statement before a Dhaka court. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mamunur Rashid recorded the statement and sent him to jail pending hearing.
Meanwhile, doctors found the evidence of rape after autopsy on the victim.
Police submitted a chargesheet to the court against Dihan on November 8, 2021. He was indicted in the case on February 16 last year.
Fakhrul vows to intensify anti-govt movement
Finally walking out of jail after a month, BNP secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Monday took a fresh vow to intensify their ongoing movement to oust the government and restore democracy and people’s voting rights in Bangladesh.
“The more they will repress us, the more people will burst into anger and defeat them through a movement,” he said.
Speaking briefly in front of BNP’s Nayapaltan Central office, he said their party has no option to back down from the movement.
“We’ll only move forward with our movement and will free all our arrested leaders and activists. We have to intensify our movement to defeat this regime and our movement will be successful,” he said.
Fakhrul said they want to carry out their movement in a peaceful manner. “Let us come forward to free Bangladesh from a fascist and autocratic rule and restore democracy and people’s voting rights. After coming out of jail, we are taking a fresh vow that we’ll carry on our movement until we succeed,” he said.
The BNP leader said the government will not be able to stop the movement to restore democracy by resorting to mass arrests, injustice, torture, killing, and oppression as people have woken up to get back their rights.
“The government has turned the entire country into a jail. Many of our leaders and activists are still staying in prisons. Unfortunately, they are living inhumane lives there. I demand their immediate release,” he said.
Fakhrul said the government thought that it would be able to suppress BNP’s movement by arresting its leaders and activists, sending them to jail, ransacking the party office and gunning down the opposition activists. “But the movement intensified. Entire Bangladesh has been rocked by protests. We’ll defeat this fascist regime through a peaceful movement.”
He called upon people from all walks of life to make the countrywide sit-in programme on January 11 (Wednesday) a success with their spontaneous participation.
Speaking at a programme, BNP standing committee members Mirza Abbas said the government had the plan to create violence at Nayapaltan over BNP’s rally on December 10, but they avoided it.
“They (govt) thought we will hold our December 10 rally at Nayapaltan and engage in a clash with police and they will make a political gain by shifting the blame on us for the violence,” he said.
The BNP leader further said: “We wanted to hold the rally peacefully avoiding clashes…I was arrested as I did not give the government a chance to create violence at Nayapaltan on December 10. My offense is I did not allow the government to ensue violence. I was arrested as I tried to avoid violence.”
Abbas said their party wants to observe their all programmes peacefully in a democratic manner. “I call upon the government not to do anything that may invite violence.”
The BNP leader said their party must carry out the movement to save the country and restore people’s voting and other rights.
They both expressed their gratitude to the party leaders and workers for carrying out different programmes seeking their release.
Fakhrul and Abbas were freed from jail on bail from Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj around 6pm.
BNP leaders and activists and the relatives of the two top leaders received the duo at the jail gate. From there, they went straight to BNP's Nayapaltan Central office.
Several hundred leaders and activists received Fakhrul and Abbas as they reached the party office around 6:30pm amid various slogans and clapping.
On Sunday, the Appellate Division upheld the High Court order granting bail to Fakhrul and party standing committee member Abbas in a case filed over the clash between police and the party activists at Nayapaltan on December 7 last year.
The High Court granted six months' bail to Fakhrul and Abbas, in the case on January 3.
Earlier on December 9, at the ungodly hour of 3.30am, a team of the Detective Branch (DB) of police picked up Fakhrul and Abbas from their homes in separate raids, a day before the party’s much-talked-about rally in the capital.
They were arrested in a case filed by police over a 'clash' between police and the party activists in the capital's Nayapaltan on December 7 centring the rally. A Dhaka court sent them to jail rejecting their bail pleas.
The time it took to secure bail for the two senior leaders raised eyebrows in many quarters.
BNP, however, went ahead with the rally in the absence of Fakhrul and Abbas and placed a 10-point demand, including the resignation of the current government and holding the next polls under a caretaker government.
Fardin's death: Bushra finally granted bail
A Dhaka court today (January 08, 2023) granted bail to Amatullah Bushra, a 3rd year student of East West University, in the case over the death of her friend, Buet student Fardin Noor Parash.
Judge Tahsin Iftekhar of Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court-7 passed the order after hearing the bail petition.
Earlier on January 5, the court set today's date for passing its order on the bail petition.
Bushra has been languishing in jail for almost two months in the case, despite investigation agencies failing to find any evidence connecting her to her friend's death.
Read more: DB to apprise court that Bushra has no link to Fardin’s death, says its chief
On December 15 last year, Additional Commissioner (Detective Branch) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Mohammad Harunur Rashid said they would give a report to the court that Bushra has no connection with the death of Fardin.
Bushra was arrested from her Banasree home in Dhaka on November 10, 2022, soon after the recovery of Fardin’s body. She was sent to jail after expiry of her five-day remand on November 16.
After a long 38-day investigation, the DB chief said on December 14 that Fardin roamed alone in different areas of Dhaka before he went missing.
“Fardin was not murdered, he committed suicide by jumping into the river from Sultana Kamal Bridge On November 4 out of desperation,” he said.
Read more: Fardin Noor Parash died by suicide: DB
Fardin was a 3rd year student of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology’s civil engineering department and a resident of Qutubpur area in Narayanganj's Fatullah.
Police recovered Fardin’s body from the Shitalakhkhya River, behind a cotton mill at Siddhirganj, on November 7, three days after he went missing.
Sheikh Farhad, a physician at Narayanganj General Hospital where the autopsy was done, said there were several injury marks on Fardin’s head and body.
Kazi Nuruddin Rana, Fardin’s father, filed a case in connection with his son’s killing with Rampura Police Station on the same day and the case was later transferred to Detective Branch (DB) Police.
Read More: Fardin Noor: Home Minister puts faith in RAB, DB investigation
SC upholds bail of Fakhrul and Abbas, no bar to release
The Appellate Division this morning (January 08, 2023) upheld the High Court order granting bail to BNP leaders Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Mirza Abbas in a case filed over the clash between police and the party activists at Nayapaltan on December 7 last year.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Hasan Foyez Siddiqui passed the order disposing of the state’s petition challenging the HC order.
The court also ordered to dispose of the High Court rule on a maintenance ground.
Read more: State files petition challenging HC bail to Fakhrul, Abbas
On January 4, Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Jahangir Hossain fixed today (Sunday) for the hearing of the petition at the full-bench of the Appellate Division.
The petition was filed on the same day with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court seeking stay on the High Court order granting bail to the two BNP leaders in the case.
The High Court granted six months' bail to Mirza Fakhrul and Mirza Abbas, in the case on January 3.
The HC also issued a rule asking the government to explain why the two BNP leaders should not be granted permanent bail.
Read more: Nayapaltan clash: Fakhrul, Abbas get 6-month HC bail
On December 21 last year, Dhaka Metropolitan Session Judge Asaduzzaman rejected the BNP leaders’ bail petitions for the fourth time.
On December 9, a team of Detective Branch (DB) of police picked up Fakhrul and Abbas from their homes in separate raids in the capital.
Later, they were shown arrested in a case over the clash between police and the party activists in the capital’s Nayapaltan. A Dhaka court sent them to jail rejecting their bail pleas.
Read More: With or without BNP, election to be held on time: Razzaque
Death of Fardin Noor: Order on Bushra's bail application Sunday
A Dhaka court set next Sunday (January 8) to pass its order on the latest bail application on behalf of Amatullah Bushra, who has been languishing in jail for almost two months now in a homicide case filed over the death of Buet student Fardin Noor (Parash), despite investigation agencies failing to find any evidence connecting her to her friend's death.
Judge Tahsin Iftekhar of Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court-7 set the date after hearing the bail petition, according to two members of Bushra’s legal team, lawyers Mokhesur Rahman and Abdur Rahman Hawladar.
Unlike Bushra's previous bail applications, which were opposed by the state on advice of the investigation agency - which was treating Fardin's death as a murder - this time the hearing took place in the context of both the Detective Branch, the court-appointed investigation agency, and the Rapid Action Battalion, which carried out its own 'shadow' investigation, having decisively shifted away from their earlier position that Fardin was murdered. Since mid-December, the two agencies have converged around a conclusion that Fardin committed suicide.
That did not stop the state from opposing Bushra's bail yet again today though.
Bushra, a 3rd year student of East West University who became friends with Fardin on the debate circuit, was the last known person to have seen Fardin on the day of his disappearance (Nov. 4). In fact they were together for hours before Fardin dropped her off at her student accommodation in Rampura close to 10pm - exactly as Bushra had said from the start and CCTV footage later confirmed.
Police picked her up on November 10, three days after Fardin's body washed up in the Shitalakkhya River, and hours after Fardin's father filed a case alleging murder - where the sole accused to be named was Bushra. It may be mentioned here that initial reports and even statements by forensic doctors who dealt with Fardin's body at Narayanganj General Hospital, made a very strong case for a homicide. Even the investigation agencies were bought on this version of events.
Bushra was taken on remand subsequently for five days, and her lawyers today reiterated how nothing untoward or suspicious was uncovered. Even the friendship the two shared was found to be platonic, her lawyers noted while talking to reporters outside the court premises. They prayed before the court for bail on humanitarian grounds.
State counsel Advocate Shamim Hasan, however, still found reason to oppose her bail petition - saying that if released despite being an accused in a murder investigation, she may "influence the witnesses of the case" while out on bail.
Fardin’s father Noor Uddin Rana was present at the court during the hearing, as it wrapped up without any order, nor any date for it. Later in the evening it was announced that an order would be passed on Sunday, the court's next working day.
Read more: DB to apprise court that Bushra has no link to Fardin’s death, says its chief
According to the investigation agencies' last version of how things transpired, Fardin committed suicide by jumping off the Sultana Kamal Bridge into the Shitalakkhya River around 2:37am on November 5, some 4-and-a-half hours after he dropped off Bushra. They have produced grainy, almost pitch dark CCTV footage in support of their claims, from an establishment at the bottom of the bridge. It shows an unrecognisable figure (too dark) appear at the side of the bridge at the said time, climb over the railing and dangle off it for some moments, before falling into the river. Fardin never learned to swim, according to DB.
But it's all very circumstantial. The only reason investigators can claim the dark figure falling into the river is Fardin, is because cellphone tracking of his phone number placed Fardin on the bridge at the time. Prior to that his phone had pinged various towers indicating his presence in Keraniganj, Johnson Road, Gulistan and Jatrabari. In Jatrabari police were able to get their hands on CCTV footage of him getting into a Laguna around 2:03am. His back is to the camera as he walks towards the laguna, which raised questions initially as to whether it is really him, but it's one of the few points on which the family agrees with the police.
Nooruddin Rana told UNB he does believe it is Fardin who gets on the Laguna, but adds: "The way he is walking shows he was tense, disturbed by something. He was in distress." Investigators have been less than convincing however, on what could have driven an intelligent young man with a seemingly bright future ahead of him to suicide. The DB chief's attempt at posthumous psychoanalysis came in for criticism as he brought up everything from Fardin's fondness for the novels of Albert Camus and Friedrich Nietzsche (nihilist philosophers) to random quotations attributed to Fardin, purportedly showing suicidal tendencies. Some of their interpretations clearly miss, or perhaps deliberately distort, what is meant, or overstate their significance, his friends say.
The Detective Branch also came across as insensitive when bringing up his family situation at home, and his supposedly slipping - although still far from disastrous - grades at BUET, as contributing factors to his suicide.
Read more: Fardin Noor: Home Minister puts faith in RAB, DB investigation
Nayapaltan clash: Fakhrul, Abbas denied bail for 4th time
A Dhaka court on Wednesday rejected the bail petitions of BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Standing Committee member Mirza Abbas, in a case over the clash between police and the party activists in the capital’s Nayapaltan on December 7.
Dhaka Metropolitan Session Judge Asaduzzaman turned down the petitions when their lawyers sought bail for them.
Syed Joynal Abedin Mezbah, a lawyer of the BNP leaders, said it is the 4th time that the top BNP leaders have been denied bail in the case.
On December 9, a team of Detective Branch (DB) of police picked up Fakhrul and Abbas from their homes in separate raids in the capital city.
Read more: Mirza Fakhrul, Abbas should’ve given division in jail earlier: HC
Later, they were shown arrested in a case over the clash between police and the party activists in the capital’s Nayapaltan. A Dhaka court sent them to jail rejecting their bail pleas.
On December 12, a Dhaka court rejected the bail petitions of 224 leaders and activists of BNP, including Fakhrul and Abbas.
On December 15, a Dhaka court again rejected the bail petitions of the two BNP leaders in the case.
A Dhaka court ordered to give division facility to them on December 9 and then they were given the division facility from December 13.
They were accused of instigating, planning and directing an attack on police.
Read more: 224 BNP leaders including Fakhrul, Mirza Abbas denied bail
On December 7, a Swechchasebak Dal leader was killed and around 50 others were injured in a clash between police and the BNP activists in front of the party’s Nayapaltan central office, ahead of its December 10 rally.
Police filed four cases at Ramna, Shahjahanpur, Motijheel and Paltan police stations against 720 BNP activists and over 2400 unnamed people in connection with the clash with BNP.
Of the BNP men, 450 were accused in the case filed at Nayapaltan police station, 20 in Motijheel police station case and seven in Shahjahanpur police station case.
Nayapaltan clash: Fakhrul, Mirza Abbas denied bail again
A Dhaka court on Thursday rejected the bail petition of BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Standing Committee member Mirza Abbas, in a case over the clash between police and the party activists in the capital’s Nayapaltan.
Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Tofazzal Hossain rejected the bail petition after the hearing.
This is the third time the top leaders of BNP have been denied bail in this case.
Read more: Mirza Fakhrul, Abbas should’ve given division in jail earlier: HC
Senior lawyers Zainul Abedin and Masud Ahmed Talukder appeared for the bail plea while Dhaka Metropolitan Public Prosecutor Abdullah Abu Jamin represented the state.
On Wednesday, the counsel of Mirza Fakhrul and Abbas pleaded for their bail in the court of Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rezaul Karim Chowdhury.
On Tuesday, Mirza Fakhrul’s wife Rahat Ara Begum, Mirza Abbas’ wife Afroza Abbas and advocate AJ Mohammad Ali submitted the petition.
A Dhaka court ordered to give division facility to them on December 9 and then they were given the division facility from Tuesday.
In the early hours of Friday, a team of Detective Branch (DB) of police picked up Fakhrul and Abbas from their homes in separate raids in the capital city.
Read more: 224 BNP leaders including Fakhrul, Mirza Abbas denied bail
Later, they were arrested in a case filed over the clash between police and the party activists in the capital’s Nayapaltan.
On Monday, a Dhaka court rejected the bail petition of 224 leaders and activists of BNP, including Fakhrul and Abbas, and sent them to jail.