Fakhrul, 6 other BNP leaders get bail from HC

Seven top BNP leaders, including its Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, yesterday secured anticipatory bail from the High Court in a criminal case filed for allegedly “provoking people against the state”.

The six others are Nazrul Islam Khan, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Abdul Moyeen Khan, Ruhul Kuddus Talukder Dulu and Amanullah Aman.

The HC bench of Justice Muhammad Abdul Hafiz and Justice Kashefa Hussain granted them anticipatory bail until police would submit the probe report of the case to a lower court concerned.

The bench passed the order after hearing two separate bail petitions filed by the accused who appeared before the judges seeking bail.

Zainul Abedin, a lawyer for the accused, told The Daily Star that the HC granted bail to the BNP leaders on the ground that the allegations brought against them in the case was baseless and fabricated. 

He said the case was filed with “a political motive to harass the BNP leaders”, as “the government was scared” after it saw a huge presence of people at the September 30 BNP rally at Dhaka's Suhrawardy Udyan.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said his office will move an appeal before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court challenging the HC's bail order for the BNP leaders if the government gives such instructions.    

The case, filed with Hatirjheel Police Station on October 1, also named BNP leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi and 47 other party men as accused.

The case statement read that the leaders delivered “provocative and anti-government speeches” at the September 30 rally, and party supporters “committed offences while returning from the programme”.

Moudud Ahmed, Khandker Mahbub Hossain, Zainul Abedin and AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon represented the accused at the hearing.