HC asks why Samrat’s bail shouldn’t be scrapped

Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Tuesday issued a rule asking the state and other respondents to explain as to why the lower court order that granted bail to expelled Jubo League leader Ismail Hossain Samrat in a corruption case should not be cancelled.
The court also fixed October 23 for hearing the rule.
The bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat issued the rule following a criminal revision application filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) seeking cancellation of the lower court order that recently granted bail to Samrat in a Tk 2.94 crore corruption case.
In the application, the commission said the HC on May 18 cancelled Samrat’s bail granted by the lower court and also ordered him to surrender before the lower court concerned in seven days in connection with the case.
On August 10, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court upheld the HC order, but the lower court on August 22 granted bail to Samrat in violation of the SC order.
Lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan who appeared in the court on behalf of the ACC said the lower court has granted bail to Samrat on health ground though he is not physically sick as he staged a show down after getting released from jail.
The lawyer said Samrat has made a “false statement” before the lower court that he was very sick and receiving treatment in the ICU in a hospital, but he is moving around like a healthy man. Therefore, the lower court has wrongly granted bail to Samrat in the case, he added.
Samrat on August 22 secured ad-interim bail from a Dhaka court in the corruption case filed for siphoning around Tk 2.94 crore and channeling it to casinos in Singapore and Malaysia between 2011 and 2018.
Samrat staged a show-down on Friday (August 26, 2022) while appearing in public for the first time in three days after being released on bail.
On Friday, he went to Dhanmondi 32 with thousands of Jubo League leaders and workers to pay respect to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
On November 12 of 2019, the ACC filed the case against Samrat with its Integrated District office-1 of Dhaka for amassing illegal wealth of Tk 2.94 crore.
Samrat, the former president of Jubo League’s Dhaka City South unit, came under scrutiny over his alleged ties to the illegal gambling business after the Rapid Action Battalion busted casino operations in numerous clubs in the capital in September 2020.
He subsequently went into hiding before being arrested along with Arman in Cumilla on Oct 6 that year.