Minar denied bail, Zahid has to surrender

The apex court today scrapped the High Court bail granted to Mahtab Uddin Minar, the prime accused in Fulgazi’s Ekramul Haque murder case.

It also dropped weight on another HC bail order to Zahid Chowdhury, another accused of the case, and ordered him to surrender by a week.

Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha-led four-member bench of the Supreme Court passed the order after hearing two government petitions against the HC orders.

Ekramul Haque, president of Fulgazi upazila unit Awami League, was shot and burnt alive in his car in Feni town on May 20 last year.

Rezaul Haque, brother of slain Ekram, filed a murder suit with Feni Model Police Station that day, accusing Mahtab and 30 to 35 unnamed people.

Detectives arrested Mahtab, the lone named accused in the case, from a house in Kachukhet area near Dhaka Cantonment in the capital on May 27 last year.

He secured permanent bail from the High Court on March 2, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said today. “Zahid secured bail a long time ago.”

Through the SC verdict, Mahtab, who is now in custody, cannot get out of jail, he added. Zahid, on the other hand, has to surrender to a lower court.