Sikder brothers seek anticipatory bail from Singapore

Sikder Group chairman Ron Haque Sikder and his brother Dipu Sikder have sought anticipatory bail from the High Court in the case regarding abduction of and murder attempt on the managing director and additional managing director of the Exim Bank. The hearing of their bail petition may be held on Monday by the virtual High Court bench of Justice Md Ashraful Kamal. The state prosecution said that they had appealed for anticipatory bail from Singapore.

They had sent the bail petition on 2 July by e-mail.

The Supreme Court website had their bail petition scheduled for hearing on Monday. They are represented by their lawyers Ajmalul Hossain QC, Sayed Ahmed and Muhammad Saifullah Mamun.

Deputy attorney general Bashir Ahmed is the state prosecutor at this court. Speaking to Prothom Alo on Sunday, Bashir Ahmed said there has been no precedence of the High Court granting anticipatory bail in the three months that the virtual court has started. There can be no resolution, legally, for a bail appeal made from outside of the country.

Charges were filed by the Exim Bank authorities against the two brothers on 19 May with the Gulshan police station for attempted murder. The incident, according to the charges, had taken place on 7 May. The two brothers left the country on 25 May, in their own aircraft of R&R Aviation, which they declared to be an ‘air ambulance’ for carrying patients.

Ron Haque Sikder has summoned the Exim Bank MD, Mohammed Haider Ali Miah, and threatened him at gunpoint. The brothers even opened fire in an attempt to murder the MD and the additional MD Mohammed Firoz Hossain. They tortured them too and forced them to sign blank sheets of paper. This took place in Sikder Tower on Road 11 of Banani in the capital city. They had abducted the two officials as they were not accepting the collateral being shown for a Tk 5 billion loan for which the Sikders had applied.