Ex-NSU trustee Shahjahan gets HC bail

Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Wednesday granted conditional bail to Md Shahjahan, a former member of North South University’s trustee board, in a case filed on charge of misappropriation of Tk 3.03 billion during purchasing land for the institution.
According to the conditions, Shahjahan cannot enter NSU premises and cannot leave the country without permission from the court concerned.
The HC bench of Justice S M Kuddus Zaman and Justice Fahmida Quader granted his bail after hearing a petition filed by accused Shahjahan seeking bail in the case.
Lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan who appeared in the court hearing on behalf of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) said that they would appeal before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court challenging the HC bail order.
The HC granted Shahjahan’s bail considering his old age.
Senior lawyer Sayeed Ahmed Raza and lawyer Shah Monjurul Hoque appeared for Shahjahan during hearing of the bail petition.
On May 22, this year, the HC bench led by Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder rejected anticipatory bail petitions filed by the then four members of NSU trustee board in the same case and ordered Shahbagh Police Station to arrest them immediately.
Accordingly, the four accused, MA Kashem, Benajir Ahmed, Rehana Rahman and Mohammad Shajahan, were produced before the trial court on May 23. The court sent them to jail rejecting their bail prayers.
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 during 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 decimal of land in the name of campus development paying extra charge of Tk 3.03 billion which was later embezzled.