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The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Monday upheld a High Court order that granted bail to MA Kashem, a member of the North South University Board of Trustees, in a case filed on charge of misappropriating Tk 3.03 billion while purchasing land for the institution.
A five-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order after hearing a leave to appeal petition filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) seeking a stay on the HC verdict.
Now there is no legal bar on MA Kashem’s release from jail following the SC order, said his lawyer Sayeed Ahmed Raza.
Earlier on November 13, the Chamber Judge of the SC upheld another portion of the HC verdict that granted conditional bail to another member of NSU Trustee Board, Rehana Rahman, in the same case.
On November 10, the High Court bench of Justice S M Kuddus Zaman and Justice Fahmida Quader granted bail to these two members of the North South University Board of Trustees in the case.
Lawyers Murad Reza, Shah Monjurul Hoque and Sayeed Ahmed Raza appeared for the petitioners, while lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan represented the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) during the hearing.
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 procurement of 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 an extra charge of Tk 3.03 billion which was later embezzled.
Among the accused, the 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 petition, 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.
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 case.