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The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Monday upheld a High Court order that granted bail to suspended director of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Khandaker Enamul Basir who had been earlier convicted by a trial court in a case filed over the transaction of Tk 4.0 million as bribe.
A five-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique dismissed a petition filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), challenging the High Court bail order.
Lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan who appeared in the court hearing on behalf of the ACC said Enamul Basir will get released from the jail following the apex court’s order if he is not arrested in any other case.
The apex court bail order came on the ground that he has been in jail for 40 months, said his lawyer SM Shahjahan adding that there is no legal bar for his client to walk out of the prison now.
In response to a petition, the High Court on November 17 this year granted ad-interim bail to Basir for six months.
Earlier on February 23 this year, a Dhaka Court sentenced Enamul Basir and Mizanur Rahman, suspended Deputy Inspector General of Police, to eight and three years in jail respectively in the Tk 4.0 million bribery case.
Judge of the Special Judge's Court-4 in Dhaka, Shaikh Nazmul Alam, handed down the sentence in presence of the convicts at a packed courtroom.
Enamul Basir was sentenced to three years for taking Tk 4.0 million as bribe from Mizan and five years for laundering the amount. But the sentence will be run concurrently, the judge said. He was also fined Tk 8.0 million, in default of which he will have to serve six months more in jail.
The High Court on April 13 this year admitted the appeal petition filed by Enamul Basir and stayed the fine imposed on him by the trial court.
The ACC official was accused in a case for receiving bribes of Tk 4.0 million from suspended Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Bangladesh Police Mizanur Rahman.
Earlier on July 16, 2019, Md Fanafillah filed the case against the two government officials with the ACC’s Dhaka District Coordination Office-1 in Dhaka.