Staff Reporter :
After a daylong drama, BNP’s newly appointed Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was released on bail from the jail on Wednesday.
The BNP leader secured bail in two arson cases after a Dhaka court sent him to the jail rejecting bail pleas. The court did it after he was announced full-fledged Secretary General of the BNP.
Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Court Md Golam Nabi passed the order of landing him in the jail in the morning after Mirza Fakhrul surrendered to the court seeking bail. Later, the same court granted him the bail hearing the reconsideration petition filed by his lawyer Advocate Sanaullah Miah.
The counsel said that they moved the reconsideration petition citing reason that Mirza Fakhrul fell sick after imprisonment. This adds a new dimension to the daylong drama. The morning started with Mirza Fakhrul becoming BNP’s full functioning secretary general after a five-year wait. The drama ended in the evening after release of the BNP leader from the Dhaka central jail.
Leaders and activists of the BNP and its front bodies accorded a reception to Mirza Fakhrul at the jail gate just after his release. They received the leader with flowers. BNP leaders and activists gathered at Nayapaltan in the morning to greet their new secretary general but were disappointed to hear that the BNP leader had been sent to the prison. The BNP men later brought out a procession in front their party’s Nayapaltan office demanding release of their leader. The BNP men also brought out processions in several other parts of the country. Demanding release of Mirza Fakhrul immediately, newly appointed senior Joint-Secretary General of the party Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed in a press briefing at the Nayapaltan office warned that they would go for tougher movement if their leader was not released within short time.
Mirza Fakhrul had secured interim bail from the High Court in three cases filed during the BNP-led 20 Party Alliance’s movement from January 2015. The Supreme Court had said Mirza Fakhrul should be given bail until the rule was resolved. The rule was resolved in the High Court on November 24 and the BNP leader was granted three months bail, but he sought permission to file an appeal to get a permanent bail.
A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha resolved his plea on February 29 and the BNP leader was told to surrender within 15 days.
Following the instruction from the apex court, Mirza Fakhrul appeared before the Dhaka court on Wednesday and sought bail in the two cases filed with Paltan Police Station.
