Ctg mayor released on bail

Staff Correspondent

Chittagong mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury was on Wednesday released on bail from the prison cell of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital after 19 months of his detainment.
Deputy inspector general (prisons) Shamsul Haider Siddiqui said, ‘We have withdrawn jail guards from the prison cell at around 3:20pm as the Chittagong mayor has secured bail from the higher court in all the cases against him.’
Mohiuddin, also the president of the Chittagong City Awami League, was apprehended from his Chashma Hill residence in the port city on March 7, 2007 as part of an anti-graft drive by the military-controlled interim government.
He is now accused in 15 cases although 22 cases were filed against him after his arrest. The police submitted final reports to the court in four of the cases while the High Court quashed three others.
Suffering from heart diseases, the Chittagong mayor had undergone a bypass surgery before his arrest. He had fallen ill in Bandarban Jail on May 14, 2007 and was taken to Chittagong Medical College Hospital with heart, respiratory and urinary complications.
He was shifted to the Intensive Care Unit of Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital on May 15, 2007. He has secured bail in all the cases filed against him and he had secured the latest bail in the Bijoy TV scam case with a Tk 80,000 bond on September 30.
The process of his release was delayed as most of his release orders were first sent to Chittagong and then to the jail authorities in Dhaka.