The Appellate Division on Wednesday upheld a High Court order that had granted bail to rights organisation Odhikar secretary Adilur Rahman Khan in a cyber crimes case.
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.
Adilur’s counsel Asaduzzaman told New Age that as the Appellate Division did not stayed the bail, there was no legal bar for Adilur’s release from jail.
Adilur is not wanted in any other case, Asaduzzaman added.
Attorney general Mahbubey Alam moved the petition for staying the bail, while senior Supreme Court lawyer Rokanuddin Mahmud with Asaduzzaman appeared for Adilur, also a Supreme Court lawyer.
On Tuesday, the High Court bench of Justice Borhanuddin and Justice KM Kamrul Kader granted interim bail for six months to Adilur after hearing a petition filed by him, challenging an order passed by the Cyber Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka on September 25 rejecting his petition seeking bail.
The bench had also directed the government and the police to explain why Adilur would not be granted regular bail.
On August 10, the Detective Branch of police arrested Adilur, also a former deputy attorney general, in front of his Gulshan house based on a general diary.
Metropolitan magistrate Md Nuru Mia on September 12 discharged Adilur from the general diary after the detectives filed an application seeking him to be discharged as specific charges were pressed against him.
Earlier 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 on May 5 and early May 6.
In the charge sheet, the detectives claimed 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 of arrest of Nasiruddin Elan as the police showed him fugitive in the case.
On September 25, the tribunal had posted for October 21 the hearing in the framing of charges. The tribunal had also asked the police to report by October 21 the execution of warrant for the arrest of Elan.
A metropolitan magistrate’s court had remanded Adilur in custody for five days for interrogation, but the High Court had halted the remand and ordered him to prison. The High Court had also ordered division facilities for him in jail as per the Jail Code.
International and local human rights groups as well as different political parties had condemned the arrest Adilur.
-With New Age input
