A Dhaka court on Monday refused to hold a hearing on the bail petitions submitted for four members of North South University's (NSU) trustee board in a Tk 3.03 billion money laundering case.
The four trustees are--- MA Kashem, Benajir Ahmed, Rehana Rahman and Moahammad Shajahan.
Judge KM Emrul Kayesh of the Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge's Court passed the order after their lawyers submitted four separate petitions, seeking bail in the case.
As the High Court rejected their bails earlier and the matter is pending with it, he had no jurisdiction to hear on the issue, the judge told the defence lawyers. The judge, however, fixed June 30 for the next hearing of the case.
Lawyer Ehsanul Haque Samaji and others appeared in the court hearing on behalf of the trustees.
The same judge on May 23 allowed the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to interrogate them at the jail gate for a day in the case.
Earlier on May 22, the High Court sent four trustees of the North South University under the police custody of the Shahbagh Police Station in Dhaka after rejecting their anticipatory bail petition filed in the corruption case.
The Officer in Charge of the Shahbagh Police Station was asked to place the accused trustees to the concerned lower court within 24 hours from the time of taking them in their custody.
The High Court bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo passed the order after holding a hearing on the petition filed by the trustees.
The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case on May 5 in 2022 with the ACC’s integrated office in Dhaka against six persons including these four trustees on charge of misappropriation of Tk 3.03 billion during purchasing land for the institution.
According to the case statement, bypassing the North South University Syndicate, University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Ministry of Education, some members of the Board of Trustees of the university purchased 9096.88 decimal of land in the name of campus development paying extra charge of Tk 3.03 billion which was later embezzled.
Among the accused, university’s four trustees, MA Kashem, Benajir Ahmed, Rehana Rahman and Moahammad Shajahan, filed the anticipatory bail petition with the High Court on May 16.
