Staff Reporter :The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Sunday granted permission to senior journalist Shafik Rehman to file an appeal in the court against a High Court order that rejected his bail in a sedition case. The four-member Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the order upon a leave-to-appeal petition filed by the veteran journalist challenging the HC order that turned down his plea seeking bail in the case. The court directed both the prosecution and the defence to submit the concise statement of the appeal within three weeks. The court also directedthe jail authorities to take proper steps to ensure medical treatment and to admit Shafik to Bangabandhu Sheikh Medical University (BSMMU). The detectives arrested the former editor a Bengali Daily on April 16 this year from his Eskaton Garden residence of the city in a conspiracy case filed with Paltan Police Station on August 3, 2015. On June 7, a HC bench scrapped the petition of Shafik Rehman after he was denied bail by the trial court. He moved SC with a leave to appeal petition, which was then forwarded to a regular bench by the chamber judge on July 14. In May last year, police filed a case against an expatriate BNP leader’s son, and two other Americans, who were convicted in the US for bribing a former FBI agent to get confidential information about Joy with the intent to kidnap and kill him.
