Court Correspondent :
A Dhaka court on Tuesday granted bail to Erfan Selim, son of Dhaka-7 lawmaker and Awami League leader Haji Md Salim, in two cases in which he was sentenced to one year imprisonment by a mobile court.
Dhaka Additional District Magistrate Bhaskar Debnath Bappi passed the order on condition that Erfan appears before the court every Tuesday in connection with the cases.
Erfan’s counsel Pran Nath said they filed two petitions with the court challenging the one-year imprisonment of Erfan Selim by the mobile court for possession of alcohol and walkie-talkies.
After the hearing, the court granted bail to him in both the cases, he added.
Talking to this correspondent criminal expert advocate Khurshid Alam Khan said, he never heard of such bail granted by any court and he cannot cite any example of such bail. This bail seems, quite unnatural, he added.
Another criminal lawyer Dhaka’s Public Prosecutor Abdullah Abu said, although Erfan Salim, secured bail in 2 cases, he will have to remain in the jail. Because, he has been facing other cases, including the serious case filed against him on the charge of assaulting a naval officer. While talking to this correspondent, criminal lawyer Masud Ahmed Talukder, who was a President of Dhaka Bar Association, told this correspondent this bail seems mysterious. Perhaps, any indication from any powerful quarter managed this bail.
On October 26, last year, Erfan, also a councillor of Dhaka south City Corporation’s ward-30 was sentenced by a Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) mobile court to six months jail over recovery of illegal alcohol and another six months for possessing unregistered walkie-talkies.
Meanwhile, Chawkbazar police on Monday submitted a final report with the court clearing Erfan of charges in two other cases saying that they did not find enough evidence to prove the charges against him in the two cases.
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said they filed the cases against him based on what they found during a drive at his residence.
The elite force’s Director (media wing) Lieutenant Colonel Ashik Billah told media that the allegations brought by the RAB against Erfan were based on the things they recovered from his residents during the nine-hour-long raid.
The RAB will proceed further after receiving the final report, he added.
Asked if the RAB’s operation would be deemed questionable after police dropped charges against Erfan, Lieutenant Colonel Ashik Billah said, “The RAB conducted the drive while an executive magistrate was present there. We filed the cases based on the things we recovered. But, we are not aware of the reports submitted by the investigators.”
Meanwhile, RAB Director General Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun denied to make any comment saying that the case against Erfan Salim is under trial in court.
“The RAB conducted the drive based on specific information. Police submitted final reports according to their findings,” said the RAB Director General while talking to the reporters at a programme held at its headquarters on Tuesday.
On 26 October, Navy Lieutenant Wasif Ahmed Khan filed a case against Erfan and his associates for assaulting him at the Kalabagan crossing the night after Salim’s vehicle hit his motorbike.
After the assault, the RAB carried out a nine-hour-long raid and recovered firearms and drugs, eventually filing two cases against Erfan and Zahidul.
During the raid, the RAB seized at least 38 walkie-talkie sets, three very high frequency sets, two pistols, two handcuffs, a router, six bottles of alcohol, a gun, and 400 yaba pills.
More than two months later, Chawkbazar police submitted final reports in which charges against Erfan were dropped, but charge-sheeted his bodyguard Zahidul Mollah in two other cases filed under narcotics control and arms acts as they found the allegations as true.
Walid Hossain, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, explained to the media that the cases against Erfan had not made any references to “absolute possession.”
The statements only mention that the arms and drugs were recovered in the presence of an executive magistrate, but he refused to provide any statement to the investigators, the police officer said.
However, Walid Hossain said that charges were pressed against Zahidul because arms and yaba had been recovered from his pocket and waist.
Chawkbazar police Officer-in-Charge Moudud Hawladar said information contained in the case statements was not an accurate reflection of reality, forcing the police to provide final reports.
