United News of Bangladesh

The High Court on Sunday granted bail to Bidisha Siddiqi, former wife of late Jatiya Party Chairman and former President HM Ershad, in a fraud case, in which she was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. A High Court bench comprising Justice Md Khairul Alam and Justice Md Rafizul Islam passed the order following a bail petition. Bidisha was arrested on August 25 in connection with the case. On August 26, a sent her to jail. Advocates Fazlur Rahman Khan and Masud Mia appeared for Bidisha during the hearing. Later, Masud Mia said there is no legal bar to Bidisha's release as there are no other cases pending against her. On May 20 last, a Dhaka court sentenced Bidisha to two years’ imprisonment in the fraud case involving a flat. The court also fined her Tk 10,000, with an additional one month’s imprisonment in default of payment, and issued a warrant for her arrest. The case was filed at Gulshan Police Station on February 2, 2008 by businessman AKM Mosharraf Hossain Sikdar of Dhaka’s Pallabi area. According to the case statement, Mosharraf paid Bidisha Tk 75 lakh on July 10, 2001 for a flat in Baridhara that was supposed to be handed over by July 10, 2002. However, despite the passage of several years, the flat was not handed over, the complaint said. Later, Bidisha allegedly issued a cheque for Tk 72 lakh on February 9, 2005, which was dishonoured due to insufficient funds. The complainant also alleged that instead of returning the money or handing over the flat, Bidisha delayed the matter on various pretexts and later threatened to kill him.

A sub-inspector (SI) of the Special Branch (SB) of police was beaten to death allegedly by a group of assailants over the parking of a private car in front of his son’s garment factory at Aminbazar in Savar on Saturday night. The deceased was identified as SI Altaf Hossain, 58, who was posted in City SB (Marketing Intelligence) of Dhaka, and the son of late Juran Ali Sheikh of Rupnai Gachpara village under Enayetpur Police Station in Sirajganj. The incident occurred around 8:30pm in the Baradeshi Madina Housing Area of Aminbazar. According to the City SB, a group of around 20-25 people attacked Altaf and his younger son Ariful Islam, 26, in front of the garment factory owned by Altaf’s elder son Sharif, 33, over the parking of a private car there, leaving them injured. The injured were taken to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, where doctors declared Altaf dead around 9:18pm, it said, adding that Ariful is undergoing treatment at the hospital. Altaf lived with his family in the Madina Housing Area. Additional Superintendent of Police of Savar Model Police Station Md Jahangir Alam said police arrested a suspect, Zahurul Islam, 30, early Sunday in connection with the killing. He said Zahurul, son of Moslem Uddin, was arrested around 4:30am. Police said Altaf was a tenant at a house owned by Md Alamin in the same area and also owned a five-decimal plot there, where the small garment factory was established. Local resident Abul Kalam Azad said the incident occurred over the parking of a vehicle in front of the garment factory.

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) have arrested three people, including a bus driver, in connection with the recovery of a man’s body from the Banani section of the Dhaka Elevated Expressway. They were arrested during a joint operation in the capital’s Mohakhali area on Saturday, said Shah Alam, additional superintendent of police and senior assistant director (Operations and Media) of RAB-1. The arrested were identified as bus driver Sohel Rana, 40, supervisor Saju, 28, and helper Monir, 18. Law enforcers also seized a Raj Classic bus, registration number Sirajganj-H-11-0085, which they suspect may have been used in connection with the incident. The three were handed over to Banani Police Station of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), Shah Alam said. The development came a day after police recovered the body of Ismail Hossain, 50, near the entrance to the Banani section of the elevated expressway. His mouth was covered with adhesive tape and he was initially unidentified. After recovering the body, RAB-1 and police examined CCTV footage from the elevated expressway and identified several suspicious vehicles. They suspect Ismail may have been strangled and that his body was dumped from a vehicle onto the expressway. However, it is yet to be established whether the seized bus was used to transport Ismail or dump his body. According to his family, Ismail was returning to Gazipur from Jamalpur carrying Tk 5 lakh, which he had received from the sale of land.

The government has taken an initiative to construct multistoried residential complexes for judicial officers in all 64 districts and eight metropolitan cities to address their housing crisis. The complexes are planned to be 10 to 15 stories high, depending on the location, according to a PID handout. The Law and Justice Division under the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs has instructed district and sessions judges to identify suitable sites and submit spatial layouts and necessary information for construction of the buildings. The Planning Unit of the Law and Justice Division issued a letter in this regard on September 2. According to the letter, around 30 to 50 judges of different ranks are currently working in civil and criminal courts and various special tribunals in each district. However, except in a few districts, there are no adequate or integrated government residential facilities for judges in most districts. As a result, most judges have to live in rented houses, which, according to the letter, poses security risks to the judges and their families because of the sensitive nature of the cases they handle. The Law and Justice Division said adequate land is available in many places under district judgeships for construction of residential buildings. It said constructing modern 10- to 15-storey residential complexes in each district and metropolitan city would not only help resolve the existing housing crisis but also meet increased demand in the future through optimum use of available land. The letter also said it would be easier to ensure CCTV surveillance, designated entry points and round-the-clock armed police security at such centralised residential complexes. The buildings are planned under a project titled “Construction of Residential Buildings for Judicial Officers in 64 Districts and 8 Metropolitan Cities.” Under the project, district and sessions judges have been asked to provide details and spatial layouts showing the amount of land available at court premises, or at old court and Munsif court premises under their jurisdiction. If sufficient land is not available on court premises, they have also been asked to suggest potential sites within one kilometre of the district judge court building where land could be acquired if necessary. The executive engineers of the Public Works Department in the respective districts have also been asked to take necessary steps to conduct digital surveys of the selected sites.  

Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Khondkar Misbah ul Azim left Dhaka for Saudi Arabia on Saturday on an official visit. During the visit, the Navy chief is scheduled to pay courtesy calls on Saudi Arabia’s Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces, Commander of the Royal Saudi Naval Forces and Commander of the Multinational Maritime Defence Coalition. During the meetings, they will discuss various issues of bilateral interest including the existing friendly relations between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia and areas of cooperation between the two navies. The Navy chief will also visit various military and naval installations in Saudi Arabia and exchange views on professional relations, training and other areas of cooperation between the naval forces of the two countries. The visit is expected to further strengthen the existing mutual cooperation and fraternal ties between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia.    

A Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal man was hacked and shot dead by unidentified assailants at Keranihat Bazar in Raozan upazila of Chattogram on Thursday night. The deceased was identified as Mohammad Karim, 35, son of Muhammad Shafi of Har Para village under Urkirchar union. He was an activist of Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal, locals said. Traders at Keranihat Bazar said Karim, who worked as a CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver, was at the bazaar around 9:30pm when a group of miscreants attacked him. The assailants hacked him on the head and shot him in the back before fleeing the scene, they said. Confirming the incident, Chattogram Superintendent of Police Masud Alam said Karim had several cases filed against him with different police stations. Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Raozan Police Station Saiful Islam said the motive behind the murder could not be determined immediately. “Police are investigating the incident to identify those involved in the killing,” he said. According to Raozan Police Station, Karim was accused in at least 10 cases filed under the Arms Act and the Narcotics Control Act.

A court has ordered a case to be filed against a lawyer, a court police officer and a clerk in Gaibandha for allegedly using forged birth certificates to show four adult accused as children and secure their bail, tampering with court order sheets and removing case records. The order reached Gobindaganj Police Station around noon Thursday, following which police began the process of filing a case against the three accused. The order was issued on Wednesday by Mohammad Iftekhar Bin Aziz, judge of Gaibandha Children’s Court-2 and Senior District and Sessions Judge. The accused are district bar lawyer Shefaul Islam Ripon, court clerk Hasan Ali and then Gobindaganj court (General Register) GR officer Abdur Sabur. Police arrested four people — Palash Rana, Suman Mia, Shamim Chowdhury and Enamul Haque from different places in Gobindaganj in connection with several cases, including a hacking case. Relatives of the accused later sought legal advice from lawyer Shefaul Islam to secure their release from jail. According to the allegations, the lawyer, in exchange for a large sum of money, arranged forged birth certificates and other documents to show Enamul Haque, a married adult hacker, as a minor. The lawyer allegedly used the documents to secure bail for adult accused in three separate cases by presenting them as children. The lawyer was also accused of taking a large amount of money from the accused and, with the help of court GR officer Abdur Sabur and clerk Hasan Ali, removing court records and tampering with orders recorded in the order sheets. Several lawyers, including Sarwar Hossain and Mottalib Hossain, later urged the court to cancel the bail granted to the accused. As the lawyers opposed the bail, the court took the matter into consideration and ordered an investigation. The judge of Children’s Court-2 assigned the investigation to Gobindaganj Senior Judicial Magistrate SM Galib Hasan. He submitted his investigation report to the Children’s Court on August 19 and found the allegations to be true. In his report, the magistrate recommended cancellation of lawyer Shefaul Islam Ripon’s licence, cancellation of the registration of his clerk Hasan Ali, and departmental action against police officer Abdur Sabur, the then GR officer of Gobindaganj court, for negligence of duty. The court observed in the investigation report that such an incident was a “dark chapter” for the country’s overall judicial system. After receiving the investigation report, Judge Mohammad Iftekhar Bin Aziz directed the bench assistant of the Gobindaganj Senior Judicial Magistrate’s Court to file a case with Gobindaganj Police Station against the accused. Gobindaganj Police Station Officer-in-Charge Mozammel Haque said they had received the court order and were taking necessary legal steps.

A woman was arrested after she allegedly drugged her husband and beat him to death with a brick before calling the national emergency helpline 999 to surrender in the capital's Sabujbagh area on Thursday.  The deceased was identified as Mahfuzur Rahman, 40.  The caller, Rehana Akhter, 40, contacted the emergency service from the Nandipara Boro Masjid area at noon. She confessed that she had administered sleeping pills to her husband on Wednesday night and struck his head with a brick while he was asleep.  Constable Arif Hossain received the call at the 999 control room, while Police Dispatcher Sub Inspector Owlad Hossain coordinated the response with Sabujbagh Police Station.  A police team subsequently rushed to the scene and arrested her.  Primary investigation indicates that she murdered her husband out of anger stemming from family feuds and his alleged extramarital affairs.  Legal proceedings regarding the incident are currently underway, police added. 

Chief Prosecutor of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) Md Aminul Islam on Thursday said the prosecution has secret information suggesting there may be some plans afoot to sabotage the tribunal. He made the remarks while briefing reporters at his office. Sagar-Runi murder: ICT finds link to cultural figure “Our tribunal’s security has been strengthened compared to before. We have some secret information that there may be an attempt to carry out sabotage here when the trials of influential accused are nearing their conclusion or when verdicts are awaiting,” he said. He said law enforcement agencies have been given necessary instructions to strengthen security at the tribunal and are overseeing security arrangements. The chief prosecutor also said investigations are underway against several journalists over allegations of aiding and inciting crimes against humanity. Md Aminul Islam said a formal complaint had been received against some journalists, registered and taken up for investigation. As part of the investigation, three journalists are currently in jail, he said. “If preliminary evidence of crimes against humanity is found against any other journalist during the investigation and the investigation report establishes evidence of such crimes, formal charges will also be filed against them and steps will be taken to bring them to trial before the tribunal,” he said. Regarding the murder case of journalist couple Sagar Sarwar and Meherun Runi, the chief prosecutor said a clue related to the killings had been found during another investigation. He said if any further information or relevant evidence concerning the Sagar-Runi murder is found during the investigation, it will be collected and handed over to the concerned investigators. Meanwhile, the chief prosecutor said the prosecution would appeal seeking an increase in the sentence of former information minister Hasanul Haq Inu after receiving the full text of the tribunal’s verdict in his case. He said the full verdict would be reviewed after it is received and necessary legal steps would be taken to seek enhancement of the sentence.

The High Court on Thursday refused to grant anticipatory bail to film actor Riaz Uddin Ahamed Siddique in two separate cases filed over the July 2024 mass uprising. Riaz appeared before the High Court in person and sought anticipatory bail in the two cases. After hearing, the court returned both his applications and removed them from the cause list. Senior lawyer Motahar Hossain Saju appeared for Riaz, while Deputy Attorney General Md Manzurul Alam Sujon represented the state. Later, Manzurul said Riaz had filed two separate anticipatory bail petitions in cases lodged with Jatrabari and Shahbagh police stations. “The court did not grant him bail. It returned the two petitions,” he said. One of the cases against Riaz was filed over an alleged attempt to kill Saifuddin Mohammad Emdad, a student of Government Alia Madrasah in the capital, during the uprising. The case was filed on May 2, 2025, naming Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as the principal accused along with 200 others, including artistes, journalists, teachers and political figures. Earlier, on April 30, 2025, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Monirul Islam accepted the complaint and directed Shahbagh Police Station to register it as a first information report (FIR). Riaz is also an accused in another murder case filed in connection with the July uprising.