Wives of 3 BNP leaders get anticipatory bail

The High Court (HC) yesterday granted anticipatory bail to the wives of three BNP leaders for three months or till submission of police reports in three separate cases filed for amassing illegal wealth and concealing information.
Upon separate petitions, the HC granted bail to Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka's wife Ismat Ara, former health minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain's wife Bilkis Akhter Hossain and Barisal City Corporation (BCC) Mayor Mujibur Rahman Sarwar's wife Syeda Nasima Sarwar.
The HC also granted bail to Khoka's daughter Sarika Sadeque in connection with one of the cases.
A HC bench comprising Justice Khondker Musa Khaled and Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury also issued a rule on the government and the ACC asking them to explain within three weeks why the accused should not be granted regular bail in the cases.
Ismat Ara, Bilkis Akhter Hossain, Syeda Nasima Sarwar and Sarika Sadeque yesterday appeared before the court for bail.
Their counsels barrister Rafique-ul Huq and barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokon told the court that since the ACC did not issue any notice to the petitioners to submit their wealth statements before filing of the cases against them, the cases were concocted.
They also said as per amended provisions of the Emergency Power Rules (EPR), if co-accused in a case are women and children, they would be granted bail.
ACC Assistant Director Shamsul Alam on April 2 this year filed a case with Ramna police station accusing Khoka and his wife Ismat Ara, daughter Sarika Sadeque and son Israk Hossain for accumulating wealth worth over Tk 17.57 crore that did not match their actual income and for concealing information about Tk 9.96 crore worth of wealth in their wealth statements submitted to the ACC.
Shafiul Alam, assistant director of the ACC, filed a case with Ramna police station against Khandker Mosharraf Hossain and his wife Bilkis on charge of amassing illegal wealth worth Tk 12.51 crore and concealing information about Tk 3.11 crore.
AKM Fazlul Huq, deputy director of the ACC Barisal office, on October 31 last year filed a case with Kotwali Police Station in the district against Mujibur Rahman Sarwar and his wife Syeda Nasima Sarwar for accumulating Tk 9.92 crore worth of wealth and hiding information worth about over Tk 3.85 crore.