Separate courts in Dhaka yesterday sent BNP leader Habib-Un-Nabi Khan Sohel to jail in 41 arson cases, rejecting his bail prayers.

The cases were filed against Sohel, a joint secretary general of BNP and president of Jatiyatabadi Swechchhasebak Dal, with different police stations in the capital, including Paltan, Motijheel, Jatrabari, Khilgaon, Darussalam and Ramna, during the BNP-led 20-party alliance's antigovernment movement in 2015, defence lawyer Joynal Abedin Mesbah told The Daily Star.

Metropolitan magistrate's courts passed the order after Sohel surrendered before the courts, seeking bail in the cases.

In a statement, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir expressed his concern over sending Sohel to prison.

The incumbent government was filing "false cases" to harass the BNP men. Even though the cases were "false", the party men were appearing before the court to show respect to the law and they were being sent to jail, he said, adding that the government turned it into regular incidents.