HC grants bail to 2 NSU trustees

Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Thursday granted bail to two members of the North South University Board of Trustees in a case filed on charge of misappropriation of Tk 3.03 billion at the time of purchasing land for the institution.
The trustees are MA Kashem and Rehana Rahman.
The High Court Bench of Justice S M Kuddus Zaman and Justice Fahmida Quader delivered the verdict after hearing a rule issued relating to their bail.
Following their bail petitions, the HC on August 2 this year issued a rule asking the concerned bodies of the government to explain in two weeks as to why two members of North South University Trustee Board, MA Kashem, and Rehana Rahman, should not be granted bail in the Tk 3.03 billion money laundering case.
Lawyers Shah Monjurul Hoque and
Sayeed Ahmed Raza appeared for the petitioners, while lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan and Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin Manik represented the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the state respectively during the hearing.
Later, lawyer Sayeed Ahmed Raza said, “The court granted them ad-interim bail on two conditions. They cannot leave the country and enter the university campus without court’s permission.”
The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case on May 5 in 2022 with the ACC’s integrated office in Dhaka against six persons including five trustees of the NSU on charge of misappropriation of Tk 3.03 billion at the time of purchasing land for the institution.
According to the case statement, bypassing the North South University Syndicate, University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Ministry of Education, some members of the Board of Trustees of the university purchased 9096.88 decimals of land in the name of campus development paying extra charge of Tk 3.03 billion which was later embezzled.
Among the accused, university’s four trustees, MA Kashem, Benajir Ahmed, Rehana Rahman and Moahammad Shajahan, filed the anticipatory bail petition with the High Court on May 16 this year.
Rejecting their anticipatory bail petitions the High Court on May 22 sent four trustees under the police custody of the Shahbagh Police Station. The Officer in Charge of the Shahbagh Police Station was asked to place the accused in the concerned lower court within 24 hours from the time of taking them in their custody.
They were later produced in the trial court later, which also rejected their bail petition on June 20 for the last time and sent them to jail. Finally two of the accused again came to the High Court for bail.