The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court Tuesday stayed a High Court order till December 5 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. Chamber judge of the Appellate Division Justice M Enayetur Rahim passed the order following a petition filed by the ACC seeking stay on the HC order. The judge also asked the ACC to file a leave-to-appeal petition with this court against the HC order by December 5.
Khandaker Enamul Basir cannot get released from jail following the SC order, said ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan. The lawyer said the SC chamber judge stayed the HC bail order on the grounds that there are specific allegations of corruption against him and the trial court has convicted him based on digital evidence. Following a bail petition the HC on November 17 this year granted bail to Khandaker Enamul Basir for six months in the case.
A Dhaka Court on February 23 this year 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. A High Court bench on August 23 this year granted him bail in the case. However, the High Court bench recalled the bail order following day. Later a fresh bail petition was submitted with another HC bench.
Meanwhile, the High Court granted bail to DIG Mizanur, another convicted of the case, in last April. 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.
