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Sajjad Hossain, alias Chhoto Sajjad, a notorious criminal in Chattogram, has secured bail from the top court in three more cases.
With these, he has now secured bail in a total of seven cases.
The matter came to light last week when the first batch of bail documents for four cases arrived at the Chattogram Central Jail.
Subsequently, a second batch of bail documents for three more cases reached the prison last week, which became public knowledge on Wednesday.
Although bail orders have been arriving one after another at Chattogram Jail, Sajjad is currently in Rajshahi Central Jail. He is not being released immediately, as more cases are pending against him.
Syed Shah Sharif, the jailer of Chattogram Central Jail, told bdnews24.com: "We have received bail documents for seven cases involving Sajjad. All of them arrived last week, initially four cases and later three more. He is currently in Rajshahi Jail, and we have forwarded all the bail documents there."
All seven cases in which Sajjad and his wife, Sharmin Akter Tamanna, secured bail involve murder charges. Although bail was granted at roughly the same time, the documentation reached Chattogram nearly two and a half months after the orders were passed.
There are a total of 19 cases against Sajjad, including 10 for murder. His wife, Tamanna, faces eight cases.
On Monday, a court ordered that Chhoto Sajjad and his wife be formally arrested in two more cases following applications by the Chandgaon police.
One of these is a murder case over the death of Fazle Rabbi, who was killed during an attack by Chhatra League and Jubo League activists at Chandgaon’s Bahaddarhat during the July Uprising last year.
The other pertains to a clash outside the residence of former city BNP convenor Ershad Ullah.
Sajjad hails from Hathazari Upazila’s Shikarpur Union. He is known in the port city's Bayezid, Oxygen, and Chandgaon areas as “Chhoto Sajjad” or “Burir Nati”, a follower of the other Sajjad Hossain, a proclaimed offender known as “Boro Sajjad” who fled abroad.
The original Sajjad was a suspect in a decades-old case involving the murder of eight people, after a microbus carrying Chhatra League activists was stopped by positioning a bus across the Shah Amanat Bridge link road in broad daylight.
As his follower, Chhoto Sajjad would extort money in Bayezid and Chandgaon on his behalf.
Police arrested Chhoto Sajjad in the capital’s Bashundhara City Shopping Complex on Mar 15. He was widely discussed for several reasons, including public murders in Chattogram and threatening to beat the Bayezid Police Station chief on a Facebook livestream.
After his arrest, Chattogram Metropolitan Police Commissioner Hasib Aziz described him as the top criminal in the district, saying: "He was responsible for the double murder at Oxygen last August, and subsequently, the public shooting and killing of a person in the Chandgaon area. He was also involved in public extortion with weapons, controlling the garment waste business, and other criminal activities."
The commissioner added, “Chhoto Sajjad carried out his extortion, killings and other criminal activities under the patronage and protection of Sajjad, who is currently living in Dubai."
On Mar 30, two people were shot and killed after their private car was chased and stopped at Chawkbazar Chandanpura of the city. Two others were injured in the incident.
Firoza Begum, the mother of dead Bakhtiar Uddin Manik, filed a case at the Bakalia Police Station, naming seven people for the murder.
She alleged that the murder was carried out under the “planning” of “top criminal” Chhoto Sajjad and his wife, both of whom were in jail.
Chhoto Sajjad's name came up in discussions again after the murder of criminal Dhakaiya Akbar at Patenga Sea Beach on May 23, and the killing of Sarwar Hossain Babla on Nov 5.
After Chhoto Sajjad's arrest, his wife, Tamanna, became controversial for various reasons, including threatening opponents and claiming on Facebook Live that she would secure Sajjad's release with large sums of money.
Sajjad was transferred to Rajshahi Jail and Tamanna to Feni District Jail last month.