Acting Editor of Dainik Amar Desh newspaper got bail

Mahmudur Rahman, Acting Editor of Dainik Amar Desh, has been granted bail. Photo: Collected

On Thursday (October 3), Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge As Samch Jaglul Hossain's court granted his bail.

Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son Sajib Wazed Joy has been granted bail in the case of 'conspiracy to kill by kidnapping', Daily Amar Desh newspaper acting editor Mahmudur Rahman has been granted bail.

Mahmudur Rahman's lawyer Tanveer Ahmed said, today we have appealed against the sentence given to Mahmudur Rahman in a false case. The court accepted the appeal. Then we applied for Mahmudur Rahman's bail and the court granted it. In this case, there was no legal obstacle to his release from prison.

Earlier, on September 29, the court sent Mahmudur Rahman to jail in the same case. After 10:30 am that day, he appeared in the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court of Dhaka and surrendered in that case. Along with that, he applied for bail on the condition of appeal. After the hearing, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mahbubul Haque refused bail and ordered to send him to jail.

It is known that the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Asaduzzaman Noor of Dhaka on August 17 last year sentenced five people including Mahmudur Rahman and journalist Shafiq Rehman to seven years rigorous imprisonment in the case of 'kidnapping' and 'attempt to murder' of Sajib Wazed Joy.

The other three convicts who were sentenced are Jasa leader Mohammad Ullah, Rizvi Ahmed Caesar and Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan.

The court sentenced the accused to five years imprisonment and a fine of five thousand rupees under section 365 (kidnapping) of the Penal Code. If they do not pay the fine, they will have to serve one more month in jail. Apart from this, under section 120-B (Criminal Conspiracy) of the same Act, the court sentenced him to two years imprisonment and a fine of five thousand taka - one more month. The judge mentioned in the judgment that the two sentences will run together.

It is said in the case complaint that from any time before September 2011, the vice-president of BNP's cultural organization Jasas, Mohammad Ullah Mamun, along with high-level leaders of BNP and other parties in the alliance led by BNP, have gathered the accused in different areas of the United Kingdom and Bangladesh at Jasa's office in Paltan, the capital. In 'conspiracy', the prime minister's son and his technical advisor Sajeeb Wazed conspired to kidnap and kill Joy in America. In that incident, DB Police Inspector Fazlur Rahman filed the case at Paltan Model Police Station as the plaintiff on August 3, 2015. On February 19, 2018, the police filed a charge sheet against these five people in the court. 12 people including Sajib Wazed Joy gave evidence in this case.

Mahmudur Rahman returned home from Türkiye on the morning of September 27. At one time he served in the BNP government as the chairman of the investment board and as the state minister. After fulfilling these duties, Mahmudur Rahman joined himself in journalism. He was serving as the acting editor of Dainik Amar Desh. Mahmudur Rahman was brutally tortured by the state apparatus because of his writing in Amar Desh Patrika against the fascist behavior of the previous government. He has always been vocal and uncompromising against all the undemocratic fascism of the previous government.