Six detained BNP leaders have to remain behind bars as their bail pleas in different cases were rejected yesterday.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Asaduzzaman Noor denied bail to BNP standing committee members Moudud Ahmed, MK Anwar and Rafiqul Islam Miah, vice-chairman Hafizuddin Ahmed and chairperson’s special assistant Shimul Biswas.
Meanwhile, Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Jahrul Haque refused bail to ASM Hannan Shah, who is accused in three cases filed during recent anti-government protests.
However, Moudud, Anwar, Rafiqul, Shimul and BNP chairperson’s adviser Abdul Awal Mintoo were granted bail by the High Court bench of Justice Nizamul Huq and Md Jahangir Hossain in two other cases filed with Motijheel police station.
Of them, only Mintoo could be released from jail any time as no other case remains against him.
In another HC ruling yesterday, the bench of Justice Salma Masud Chowdhury and Justice Md Habibul Gani directed the law enforcing agencies not to harass Hannan Shah or show him arrested in any new case without due process.
The same bench ordered law enforcers not to harass BNP joint secretary Salauddin Ahmed or search his residences without a warrant. Salauddin was freed on bail in all the six cases lodged against him, his lawyer, Kaisar Kamal, said.
The court also issued a rule seeking an explanation from the government and law enforcers within four weeks on why raids conducted recently at Salauddin’s residences without search warrants should not be declared as illegal, Kaisar said.
Another High Court bench, comprising Justice Naima Haider and Justice Zafar Ahmed, found the two-day police remand order of BNP leader Khandker Mahbub Hossain illegal.
On January 8, a Dhaka court granted the remand order against Mahbub in a case related to blasting crude bombs near the Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Ramna office on January 4. The order was stayed by the HC on January 9.
BNP leaders Moudud, Anwar and Rafiqul were arrested in front of the Sonargaon Hotel on November 8, while Mintoo and Shimul were picked up outside BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan residence a few hours later the same day.