Staff Reporter :
The High Court (HC) on Wednesday granted bail to Awami League MP Abdur Rahman Bodi for six months against a lower court judgment that awarded him Jail for three years in a graft case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
The HC bench of Justice Md. Ruhul Quddus passed the order after hearing an appeal filed by Bodi on Tuesday.
On November 2, Dhaka Special Judge’s Court-3 sentenced Bodi to three years’ in prison for concealing and deliberately providing false wealth statement to the Anti-Corruption Commission in March 2014.
The MP from Cox’s Bazar was also fined Tk 10 lakh, in default whereof he would serve behind the jail three months more.
Advocate Mahbub Ali and Advocate Nasreen Siddiqua Lina defendant Bodi in the court, while Advocate Khurshed Alam Khan stood for the ACC.
Nasreen Siddiqua Lina said that our appeal had been granted. There is no legal bar now against his release, she added.
She also said that the HC also stayed the order of fine for Tk 10 lakh.
ACC counsel Khurshed Alam Khan said that they opposed the bail. But HC granted him bail referring to a Supreme Court verdict.
Abdur Rahman Bodi is no more an MP according to the article 66 of the Constitution, the ACC Counsel Khurshed Alam Khan argued. The Fine had been stayed but Jail term remained, added he.
Abdur Rahman Bodi filed an appeal with the High Court challenging lower court verdict that sentenced him to three years imprisonment. In the appeal, he prayed to the HC to acquit him of the corruption charge.
According to the case statement, Abdur Rahman Bodi concealed information about his wealth amounting to Tk 108.6 million amassed from unknown sources.
On May 7 last year, the Anti-Corruption Commission submitted charge-sheet in the case. The trial began after charges were framed against him on September 8, 2015. The argument in the case concluded on October 19.
Formerly a BNP leader, Bodi was criticized during his previous term as MP for his indecent activities. When his whole family was reportedly involved in Yaba smuggling, Bodi was also accused of giving shelter to the Rohingyas who migrated to Bangladesh from Myanmar.
Bodi joined politics in 1996 and tried to become a BNP candidate in the February 15 election. Failing to get that, he fought as an independent candidate but lost. He finally got nomination from the BNP for the June 12 election the same year, but this time his nomination paper was cancelled.
Soon he joined the Awami League. In 2000, when the BNP-Jamaat government was in power, he was selected as an administrator of Teknaf Municipality. But he was removed. In 2003, he became chairman of the municipality.
Bodi was arrested during the military-backed caretaker government. He became a member of Parliament for the first time in 2008 with an Awami League ticket and then in the January 5 polls in 2014.
At least 23 cases were filed against him at different times. All the charges against him, except two or three cases, were withdrawn by the Home Ministry’s committee that dealt with the “politically motivated cases.”
He has no position in the local or central Awami League units.
The High Court (HC) on Wednesday granted bail to Awami League MP Abdur Rahman Bodi for six months against a lower court judgment that awarded him Jail for three years in a graft case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
The HC bench of Justice Md. Ruhul Quddus passed the order after hearing an appeal filed by Bodi on Tuesday.
On November 2, Dhaka Special Judge’s Court-3 sentenced Bodi to three years’ in prison for concealing and deliberately providing false wealth statement to the Anti-Corruption Commission in March 2014.
The MP from Cox’s Bazar was also fined Tk 10 lakh, in default whereof he would serve behind the jail three months more.
Advocate Mahbub Ali and Advocate Nasreen Siddiqua Lina defendant Bodi in the court, while Advocate Khurshed Alam Khan stood for the ACC.
Nasreen Siddiqua Lina said that our appeal had been granted. There is no legal bar now against his release, she added.
She also said that the HC also stayed the order of fine for Tk 10 lakh.
ACC counsel Khurshed Alam Khan said that they opposed the bail. But HC granted him bail referring to a Supreme Court verdict.
Abdur Rahman Bodi is no more an MP according to the article 66 of the Constitution, the ACC Counsel Khurshed Alam Khan argued. The Fine had been stayed but Jail term remained, added he.
Abdur Rahman Bodi filed an appeal with the High Court challenging lower court verdict that sentenced him to three years imprisonment. In the appeal, he prayed to the HC to acquit him of the corruption charge.
According to the case statement, Abdur Rahman Bodi concealed information about his wealth amounting to Tk 108.6 million amassed from unknown sources.
On May 7 last year, the Anti-Corruption Commission submitted charge-sheet in the case. The trial began after charges were framed against him on September 8, 2015. The argument in the case concluded on October 19.
Formerly a BNP leader, Bodi was criticized during his previous term as MP for his indecent activities. When his whole family was reportedly involved in Yaba smuggling, Bodi was also accused of giving shelter to the Rohingyas who migrated to Bangladesh from Myanmar.
Bodi joined politics in 1996 and tried to become a BNP candidate in the February 15 election. Failing to get that, he fought as an independent candidate but lost. He finally got nomination from the BNP for the June 12 election the same year, but this time his nomination paper was cancelled.
Soon he joined the Awami League. In 2000, when the BNP-Jamaat government was in power, he was selected as an administrator of Teknaf Municipality. But he was removed. In 2003, he became chairman of the municipality.
Bodi was arrested during the military-backed caretaker government. He became a member of Parliament for the first time in 2008 with an Awami League ticket and then in the January 5 polls in 2014.
At least 23 cases were filed against him at different times. All the charges against him, except two or three cases, were withdrawn by the Home Ministry’s committee that dealt with the “politically motivated cases.”
He has no position in the local or central Awami League units.
