Rights organisation Odhikar’s secretary Adilur Rahman Khan was released on Friday on bail granted by the High Court more than two months after being arrested in connection with a cyber crimes case. Kashimpur Central Jail’s part 1 deputy jailer Mushfiqur Rahim told New Age that they had released Adilur from the jail at about 10:00am after examining the documents.
Adilur’s wife Saira Rahman received him at the jail gate, his lawyer Asaduzzaman told New Age.
The prison authorities said that they could not release Adilur on Thursday as the bail bond had reached Kashimpur from Dhaka Central Jail at about 8:00pm.
Asaduzzaman, however, on Thursday alleged that the prison authorities had delayed Adilur’s release illegally although all papers had been submitted to Dhaka Central Jail on Wednesday night.
The High Court on Tuesday granted six months’ interim bail to Adilur and the order was upheld by the Appellate Division after the government had appealed against his bail.
The judge in chamber of the Appellate Division, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, passed no order after hearing an application filed by the government seeking the High Court order to be stayed.
On Tuesday, the High Court bench of Justice Borhanuddin and Justice KM Kamrul Kader granted Adilur interim bail for six months after hearing a petition filed by him, challenging an order of the Cyber Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka on September 25 that had rejected his bail petition.
On August 10, the Detective Branch of police arrested Adilur, also a former deputy attorney general, in front of his Gulshan house in Dhaka.
On September 4, the Detective Branch pressed charges against Adilur and Odhikar director ASM Nasiruddin Elan for publishing a report claiming that 61 people were killed in law enforcers’ action on Hefajat-e-Islam men in the capital in May 5-6.
In the charge sheet, the detectives said that the report was published with ‘false information and doctored photos.’
The Cyber Crimes Tribunal had taken cognisance of the charges against Adilur and Elan on September 18.
The tribunal judge, AKM Shamsul Alam, had also issued a warrant for arrest of Nasiruddin Elan as the police showed him a fugitive in the case.
On September 25, the tribunal had posted for October 21 the hearing in the framing of charges.
International and local human rights groups as well as different political parties had condemned the arrest of Adilur.
-With New Age input
