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A total of 25 Supreme Court lawyers, mostly pro-BNP, on Sunday secured anticipatory bail from the High Court till submission of police report in a case filed for the violence on the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) office premises on May 16.
The HC bench of Justice Md Salim and Justice Md Riaz Uddin Khan passed the order after hearing a bail petition filed by the lawyers.
Earlier in the day, Barrister AM Mahbub Uddin Khokan, former Secretary of the SCBA and also a Joint Secretary General of BNP, Barrister Kayser Kamal, BNP’s Legal Affairs Secretary, Barrister Ruhul Quddus Kazal, former Secretary of the SCBA, Advocate Gazi Kamrul Islam Sajal, and other accused of the case appeared before the HC bench seeking bail.
Senior lawyers M Amir-Ul-Islam and AJ Mohammad Ali argued for the petitioners during the hearing.
Md Rafiqullah, Assistant Superintendent of SCBA, filed the case with Shahbagh Police Station at night on May 16 accusing twenty-five Supreme Court lawyers, mostly pro-BNP, over the violence and vandalism that took place at SCBA on that day. The complaint also made accused 150 unnamed others too.
The complainant in the case statement mentioned that the accused are pro-BNP-Jamaat lawyers. He brought charges against them of attempting to murder an AL-leaning lawyer, sexual harassment of a female lawyer, stealing, and vandalizing the office.
On Tuesday, Pro-BNP and AL-leaning lawyers were involved in a scuffle while holding separate programs on the SCBA office premises over its recent annual polls. The incident left around two dozen lawyers injured.
The SCBA Secretary's office room was also ransacked and its door and windows were vandalised in the afternoon. Leaders of the two organisations blamed each other for the incident.
After a controversial election held on March 15-16, pro-BNP lawyers are holding programs almost every day demanding a fresh election for the SCBA. They are holding rally and other programs. Awami League supporting lawyers are also holding counter programs. As a result a chaotic situation is creating in the SCBA on a regular basis.