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Mojahid told to go to trial court

HC asks govt not to arrest him in 2 weeks

Staff Correspondent
The High Court (HC) yesterday denied Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary' General Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojahid bail in Barapukuria coalmine graft case, ordering him to surrender within two weeks to the trial court which had earlier issued an arrest warrant against him.
Simultaneously the HC directed the government not to harass or arrest Mojahid within that period.
After hearing the bail petition, an HC bench comprising Justice Mohammad Anwarul Haque and Justice Farah Mahbub issued the orders in the case filed by the Anticorruption Commission (ACC).
Lawyers concerned said the
HC's denial was due to the arrest warrant against the petitioner.
On October 6, the trial court issued the arrest warrant against Mojahid.
Almost a week later on October 12, police in a report to the court described him as a fugitive, saying they could not find him in his Uttara residence in the capital, and posted the warrant notice on his residence wall.
The law enforcers conducted several failed raids at his home including one yesterday morning.
Mojahid however had been attending public events since the issuance of the warrant.
He attended a rally of BNP-led
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four-party alliance on the day police branded him a fugitive.
He was even on the Jamaat delegation to the October 14 dia-logue with Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed.
Mojahid's principal counsel Barrister Abdur Razzaktold reporters yesterday that the HC's direction for not arresting Mojahid was 'a kind of a bail', since the law enforcing agencies cannot arrest him within two weeks.
"The High Court order is a victory for the rule of law, as it passed the order after considering all relevant matters of the case," he said.
He said police did the right thing by not arresting Mojahid, since his bail petition had been pending with the HC.
As the Jamaat secretary general entered the court shortly after 3:00pm for bail, hundreds of leaders and activists of his party rushed to the Supreme Court premises to be among the first to hear the court order.
Sources said additional law enforcers were deployed since
morning at the gates of the apex court compound to arrest Mojahid. They checked vehicles entering the court compound, but however did not check the car that was carrying Mojahid.
According to the sources, two police officials cleared the way for Mojahid to the court.
During the hearing of the bail petition, Barrister Abdur Razzak told the court that there are 16 accused in the case and the HC already granted bail to some of them including Khaleda Zia and Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan following separate petitions.
He said the HC following separate prayers also stayed the case proceedings against Khaleda Zia and directed the government not to harass or arrest M Saifur Rahman.
Abdur Razzak prayed to the court to grant bail to his client, saying that his client had filed the petition on Octobers.
He also said no offence or corruption was committed in the Barapukuria coalmine deal.
The court asked the defence counsel why the petitioner did not
surrender before the trial court
Barrister Razzak replied that his client did not surrender before the trial court apprehending that he would be harassed or arrested.
He also said his client had become a fugitive in the eyes of the law despite filing a bail petition with the HC immediately after the trial court accepted the charge sheet in the case, and there was no legal bar on considering his bail prayer.
ACC's counsel Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan opposed the bail prayer of Mojahid saying, since the trial court had issued an arrest warrant against the petitioner, he became a fugitive and the HC could not consider his bail prayer.
He said the HC earlier rejected a bail petition filed by Mojahid in the case, the petitioner then filed an appeal with the Supreme Court against the HC order, and the Appellate Division threw away the appeal.
Khurshid Alam also said the case proceedings against Mojahid and the other accused did not progress in similar ways.