The High Court on Monday asked the police not to arrest or harass BNP-backed Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) mayoral candidate Mirza Abbas until order on his interim bail petitions in two cases.An HC bench comprising Justice Quamrul Islam Siddique and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore passed the order after Mirza Abbas surrendered before the court seeking interim bail in the two cases.The HC bench fixed Wednesday (April 15) for order on the interim bail petitions, said deputy attorney general M Bashirullah.”Police cannot arrest or harass Mirza Abbas until order and Abbas won’ t be allowed to take part in electioneering during that time and he must appear before the bench on Wednesday,” he said. The bench dropped another petition in a corruption case from the hearing list as there is separate bench for hearing on the petitions of graft cases, M Bashirullah added. Earlier, on Sunday, Mirza Abbas filed separate petitions with the HC seeking interim bail in the cases.Khandker Mahbub Hossain and Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokon filed the bail pleas with the HC bench Justice Quamrul Islam Siddique and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore on behalf of the BNP leader.On December 28 last, police filed a case against the BNP standing committee member, Mirza Abbas with Paltan Police Station on charge of torching a bus and exploding crude bombs.On January 4 this year, Mothijheel thana police filed another case against Abbas under the Explosive Substances Act.On March 6 last year, the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the other case against some people with Shahbagh Police Station for graft allegation in plot allotment. Although the name of Abbas was not included in the FIR, he filed the bail plea in the case ‘fearing arrest’.The affidavit the BNP leader submitted to the Election Commission with the nomination paper shows there are 37 criminal cases against Abbas now and he was accused in 24 cases in the past.
