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Arson Case

5 opposition MPs get bail

May come out of jail today

Staff Correspondent
The High Court yesterday granted six-week ad-interim bail to five opposition lawmakers in an arson case, considering their "parliamentary privileges”.
The court also issued a rule upon the government to explain in a week why twenty-nine other accused should not be granted bail.
On May 10, detectives pressed charges against 45 leaders, including BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, in the case, filed with Tejgaon Police Station after the torching of a bus in front of Prime Minister's Office during the April 29 hartal hours.
On May 16 and 21, a metropolitan magistrate sent the leaders to jail after rejecting their bail petitions. The magistrate on May 21 accepted charge sheets against the 45.
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Rejected bail by the magistrate and sessions judge's courts, 34 opposition leaders submitted 16 bail prayers before the HC yesterday.
But the HC granted bail only to six lawmakers. They are BNP Standing Committee Member MK Anwar, Joint Secretary General Mahbub Uddin Khokon and Student Affairs Secretary Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Anne, Liberal Democratic Party President Oli Ahmed and Bangladesh Jatiya Party President Andalib Rahman Partha.
They might be released today if the jail authority receives necessary documents of the bail order, proopposition lawyer Masud Ahmed Talukder told The Daily Star.
The HC bench of Justice Salma Masud Chowdhury and Justice FRM Nazmul Ahsan came up with the order and the rule after holding separate hearings on the 16 petitions.
The bench yesterday fixed
today for hearings on the bail petition of Sadeque Hossain Khoka, another BNP leader accused in the same case.
Rafique-ul Huq, Moudud Ahmed, Khandker Mahbub Hossain, Zainul Abedin and some other lawyers prayed to the HC bench to grant bail to all the accused leaders on different grounds.
Additional Attorney General MK Rahman said the “parliamentary privileges” are the immunities enjoyed by lawmakers. They cannot be arrested in seven days before the start of a parliament session and in seven days of its culmination.
The budget session of the JS commenced yesterday.
Also yesterday, detectives submitted a supplementary charge sheet before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court against Abdul Jabbar, general secretary of the pro-Jamaat body Islami Chhatra Shibir, in the arson case.
With the additional charge sheet, a total of 46 leaders of the BNP-led 18-
party alliance have been made accused in the case. Jabbar was named in the first information report (FIR).
The investigation officer also appealed to the court to issue an arrest warrant against Jabbar, who went into hiding after the filing of the case. The court fixed June 6 for the hearing on the 10's appeal.
BNPDEMO
The Dhaka city BNP yesterday afternoon staged a rally before the party's Nayapaltan headquarters in the capital, demanding the release of the detained opposition leaders.
Addressing the gathering, BNP leader Moudud Ahmed said government agents had torched the bus only to harass BNP leaders by filing false cases.
"Five leaders got bail and rest of the leaders will get bail next week,” he, however, said.
"No election will be allowed under a political government," he said. Addressing the prime minister, he said, “Make an
announcement of a non-party neutral government Otherwise you will be forced to do that throughamassuprising.”
The BNP also announced that the 18-party alliance from today will launch a nationwide campaign to mobilise public support for their movement. It will continue till June 10, the oppositionset deadline for the restoration of caretaker governmentsystem.
BNP leaders Abdul Moyeen Khan, Selima Rahman, Abdullah Al Noman, Mohammad Shahjahan and Zainul Abdin Farroque and Jamaat leader Mujibur Rahman, among others, spoke on the occasion with city BNP Members' Secretary Abdus Salam in the chair.
Earlier in the morning, addressing a human chain in front of the national press club yesterday, Opposition Chief Whip Zainul Abdin Farroque said, “We cannot go to the House while our lawmakers are in jail.”