Mojahid asked to surrender in trial court, bail refused

The High Court on Sunday, denying bail to Jamaat-e-Islami’s secretary-general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid in the Barapukuria coalmine corruption case, ordered him to surrender in the trial court within two weeks.
The High Court bench of Justice Md Anwarul Haque and Justice Farah Mahbub passed the order after hearing a bail petition filed by Mojahid.
‘The petitioner is directed to surrender in the trial court by two weeks, considering the previous High Court orders in the case,’ said the court in its order.
On October 6 the court of the Dhaka metropolitan senior special judge issued a warrant for arrest against Mojahid, who was shown absconding in the charge-sheet of the case. The court on October 16 decided Mojahid’s trial in his absence as he had neither surrendered in court nor was arrested.
Mojahid’s lawyer Abdur Razzaq told the High Court on Sunday that he, along with his client, had earlier roamed from one court to another to get bail in the case, but neither the High Court Division nor the Appellate Division accepted Mojahid’s prayer for bail.
‘We did not go to the trial court to seek bail as it has no power to entertain the prayer for bail in the case that had been filed under the Prevention of Corruption Act,’ Razzaq argued.
The High Court then asked Razzaq, ‘How will we accept Mojahid’s bail prayer? How will we accept the petition of a person who did not show the least respect for the court’s proceedings?’
Razzaq later referred to the case in which the High Court had granted bail to Jahanara Imam, also known as ‘Shahid Janani’, after a warrant for arrest against her had been issued by the trial court. She was accused of sedition for sentencing Jamaat’s amir, Matiur Rahman Nizami, in a mock public court in the ‘90s.
He also argued that the five accused in the Barapukuria case, including the principal accused — former premier Khaleda Zia — were granted bail by the High Court Division. Saifur Rahman, however, was directed on October 8 to surrender in the trial court within four weeks.
The proceedings of the case against Khaleda were also stayed by the High Court on October 16, Razzaq informed the court, adding that the law should be applied equally to all the people.
Khurshid Alam Khan, appearing for the Anti-Corruption Commission that lodged the case, opposed Mojahid’s prayer for bail. ‘The High Court cannot grant the prayer for bail under any circumstances as the petitioner has already been declared to be a fugitive.’
He also argued that the proceedings of the case have been stayed, but the warrant of arrest is still in force.
Khurshid said that the High Court on June 3 rejected Mojahid’s petition for anticipatory bail in the case when it was under investigation. Mojahid’s counsels later went to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
Mojahid appeared before the Appellate Division’s chamber judge, M Joynul Abedin, on October 8, seeking bail in the case, but the court refused to entertain the bail petition as the warrant for his arrest had been issued, Khurshid added.
A large contingent of law-enforcers was deployed in the High Court’s premises in expectation of Mojahid’s appearance in court.
After the court’s order, Mojahid’s cadres gathered in the court’s premises, shouting inflammatory slogans right before the police in violation of the state of emergency.