5 Destiny High-ups
Bail cancelled, bail reinstated
After a Dhaka Court judge Wednesday cancelled bail of five Destiny Group officials accused of money laundering, another judge of the court in a surprising move granted them bail yesterday.
And this too came after another anomaly.
On August 6, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s (CMM) Court gave bail to the accused, although it has no jurisdiction to deal with money laundering cases.
The ACC on July 31 filed two cases with Kalabagan Police Station against the five for laundering Tk 3,285 crore through cheating investors.
The accused are Destiny Group Managing Director Rafiqul Amin, Director Lt Gen (retd) M Harunur Rashid, Destiny 2000 Chairman Mohammad Hossain and its two directors Gofranul Huq and Syed-ur Rahman.
On August 6, they were granted bail after surrendering to Magistrate Erfan Ullah of CMM Court.
The Anti-Corruption Commission on August 13 turned to the Senior Special Judge’s Court, challenging the bail order. The court of Dr Akhteruzzaman cancelled the bail upon hearing two petitions of the anti-graft body.
Akhteruzzaman is a replacement of Zahirul Haque, who regularly runs the Senior Special Judge’s Court and also performs the duty of a judge of the BDR carnage trial at Bakshibazar every Monday and Wednesday.
Yesterday, when Zahirul came to the court, the lawyers of the Destiny Group filed a plea for a stay on the bail cancellation.
During the hearing of the petition, the counsels argued that Akhteruzzaman was an acting judge of the court Wednesday and he cancelled the bail without following legal provisions.
They claimed the Wednesday’s order was illegal.
Opposing the defence, Public Prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajol said the order was legal and Akhteruzzaman had discharged duties as an acting judge. So, any order issued by Akhteruzzaman would be considered as Zahirul Haque’s.
If the order of Akhteruzzaman was cancelled, all bails, revisions and appeal orders passed by him in absence of Haque would automatically be cancelled, added the PP.
However, Zahirul Haque upheld the bail order of the lower CMM Court.
Sources said Akhteruzzaman was facing tremendous pressure from the government high-ups soon after he cancelled bail of the five Destiny men, who included a former leader of the highly influential Sector Commanders Forum.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
