Tuba Group owner Delowar Hossain allegedly concealed some information in his petition for bail, which the High Court granted on July 24.
Several lawyers yesterday told the Dhaka Tribune that before submitting the petition before the bench of Justice Syed AB Mahmudul Huq and Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder, Delowar’s counsel had submitted the same petition to three other benches.
Musharrof Hossain Sardar, a deputy attorney general (DAG), said: “Delowar applied for bail in my court where I was assigned as law officer. Judges turned it down as being not pressed.
“If Delowar’s lawyer again files a petition for bail before another bench, he needs to mention that a petition of similar nature was rejected earlier by a court.”
DAG Khurshedul Alam said Delowar had applied for bail in his court too, but the judges returned the petition without hearing it.
Md Selim, another DAG, said: “Delowar applied for bail in my court long ago, but the judges gave it back, saying they had a lot of other cases to deal with and hence did not have the time to hear it.”
However, DAG Shafiul Bashar Bhandary, who was the state counsel in the High Court bench granting the bail order, said: “Delowar’s lawyer did not mention anything in his application regarding the previous attempts at obtaining bail. I have a copy of the application and it has no such information.”
On condition of anonymity, a law official said if any court rejects any petition as being not pressed, this information has to be mentioned if similar petition is filed with another bench.
“If the counsel did not mention this in the petition, it means he suppressed the fact,” the official said.
Bhandary also said Delowar’s latest bail petition filed by his counsel “was not proper.”
Despite repeated attempts over phone, Delowar’s counsel M Aminuddin could not be reached for comments.
The General Rules for Applications and Affidavits of the High Court Division says: “When an application is made to the court or to the registrar in any matter in which any previous application was made to the court or to the registrar to the same effect or with the same object or with a similar object, the fact of such application having been made and the order passed thereon shall be clearly stated in the application.”
Surprisingly enough, the government did not appeal with the Supreme Court against the bail order of Delowar. He walked out of jail on Tuesday evening.