The High Court granted six weeks’ bail to Air Vice-Marshal (retd) AK Khandker, a former planning minister, in a defamation case yesterday.
The HC bench of Justice Nizamul Huq and Justice Farid Ahmed Shibli granted the anticipatory bail in the presence of AK Khandker in response to a bail petition submitted by him on Wednesday.
MA Ihshaq Bhuiyan, a Mujib bahini member and former joint secretary of the government, filed the defamation case with the Court of Senior Judicial Magistrate in Brahmanbaria on September 10 last year for what the former planning minister wrote in one of his widely sold books titled “Bhetore Baire.”
In the book, Khandker said that the Mujib Bahini was involved in looting during the Liberation War. Most of the Bahini members were not found in the battle field, although the special force was formed by the Awami League to fight against the Pakistan occupation forces.
On March 23 this year, the additional chief judicial magistrate of Brahmanbaria summoned Khandker.
As per the HC order, the accused will now appear before the Brahmanbaria court after six weeks, his lawyer Shubroto Chowdhury said.