The High Court on Tuesday issued a rule asking the concerned bodies of the government to explain in two weeks as to why two members of North South University's (NSU) trustee board, MA Kashem, and Rehana Rahman, should not be granted bail in the Tk 3.03 billion money laundering case.
The HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat passed the order after hearing two separate petitions filed by Kashem and Rehana seeking bail in the case.
The bench also fixed August 16 for hearing on the rules.
Senior lawyers Shah Monjurul Hoque and Sayeed Ahmed Raza appeared for the petitioners, while senior lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan and Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin Manik represented the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and state respectively during the hearing.
The ACC filed the case on May 5 in 2022 with the corruption watchdog’s integrated office in Dhaka against six persons including these five trustees of the NSU 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 this year.
Rejecting their anticipatory bail petition the High Court on May 22 sent four trustees under the police custody of the Shahbagh Police Station. The Officer in Charge of the Shahbagh Police Station was asked to place the accused to the concerned lower court within 24 hours from the time of taking them in their custody.
They were later produced in the trial court later, which also rejected their bail petition on June 20 for the last time and sent them to jail. Finally two of the accused again come to the High Court for bail.
