The Supreme Court’s chamber judge has stayed a High Court order that granted bail to Azam Khan, who allegedly ran an international human trafficking ring involved in forcing hundreds of Bangladeshi women into prostitution in Dubai.
On Tuesday, chamber judge Justice Obaidul Hassan stayed the bail after a virtual hearing of the state’s petition.
Lawyer Zainul Abedin stood for the defendant while Attorney General AM Amin Uddin and Deputy Attorney General Biswajit Debnath represented the state.
Following a bail petition filed by Azam Khan, the High Court on July 19, 2021 granted him bail in a human trafficking case.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police filed the case with Lalbagh police station on July 2 last year.
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Hailing from Chittagong’s Fatikchhari upazila, Azam is accused in some 15 cases, including six murder cases.
Following Azam’s and two of his associate’s arrest, DIG Imtiaz Ahmed of the CID in a press conference on July 12, 2020 said Azam had trafficked more than a thousand women, mostly 18 to 20 years of age, in eight years, from Bangladesh into the UAE, luring them with jobs with a salary of Tk50,000 per month.
After taking them into Dubai, Azam used to torture the victims in various ways, including giving electric shocks, if they refused to obey his commands.
Azam also ran three sex trafficking gangs in India and two in Pakistan, the DIG added.
Later on July 13, 2020, Azam confessed to his involvement in the traffickings to a Dhaka magistrate.
