A Chittagong court has rejected the bail plea of the three arrested lawyers who were charged with financing the newly traced militant outfit Shaheed Hamza Brigade (SHB).
The court of Chittagong District and Sessions Judge SM Nurul Huda passed the order when the lawyers were produced before the court on Sunday morning seeking bail plea, said defence counsel Abdus Sattar.
The lawyers -- BNP’s former whip Sayed Wahidul Alam’s daughter and Supreme Court barrister Shakila Farzana, another SC’s Advocate Md Hasanuzzaman Liton and Dhaka Judge Court’s Advocate Mahfuz Chowdhury Bapon – were nabbed by Rapid Action Battalion (RAB 7) from the capital city on this August 18.
The defence filed the bail petitions in two cases filed with Hathazari and Banshkhali police stations under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
The RAB 7 claimed the lawyers had deposited Tk1.08 crore in the bank account of a SHB leader Moniruzzaman Masud alias Don.
Later, the three were shown arrested and remanded in two cases lodged with Banshkhali police station on this February 21 and with Hathazari police station on this February 19.
They gave statements before court in two phases in the cases while they said they deposited the money in Don’s account as return of their clients’ advance fees and denied militancy funding.
Like the three, another Enamul Haque, director of Golden Touch Apparels in Dhaka, was also nabbed on September 5 while he was also sued and remanded in the same cases.
Enamul also gave his statements before court in two phases in the cases and he refuted giving fund to Don’s bank account while he said he deposited the money to a business organisation’s bank account as a part of commercial transaction.
The elite force also found a Dubai Citizen Allama Libdi’s link with the funding to SHB. RAB-7 nabbed 29 SHB members so far; however, the kingpin of the outfit is on the run.
RAB said Chittagong based SHB -- modeled as like as Syria-based International militant outfit Mujahidin -- was formed in November, 2013 with former members of Islami Chhatra Shibir, Hefazat-e-Islam and other militant groups.
The law enforcing agency busted SHB’s theoretical training centre on February 19 while its military training centre was busted on February 21 and explosives warehouse discovered on February 29.