SC upholds bail to NSU’s former trustee MA Kashem

The Appellate Division on Monday upheld the High Court order granting bail to MA Kashem, former member of the trustee board of North South University (NSU), in a graft case, reports news agency UNB.

A five-member bench of the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order rejecting the Anti-Corruption Commission’s (ACC) plea to cancel his bail.

With this order, now there is no bar for MA Kashem to walk out of the jail, said ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan.

Advocates Murad Reza, Shah Manjurul Haque and Barrister Syed Ahmed Raza appeared for the accused at the court.

On 13 November, chamber judge of the Appellate Division stayed the HC order granting bail to MA Kashem and upheld that of another ex-trustee Rehana Rahman in the case.

The High Court (HC) on 10 November granted conditional bail to MA Kashem and Rehana Rahman in the case.

They were granted bail on condition that they will not leave the country and enter the NSU campus without permission.

In August, the HC issued a rule seeking explanation as to why the two NSU trustee board members should not be granted bail in this case.

Earlier, on 22 May, the court ordered Shahbagh police to arrest four former trustees of NSU after rejecting their anticipatory bail pleas in the case.

The two other accused trustees are -- Benazir Ahmed and Muhammad Shahjahan.

On 5 May, the ACC sued the chairman of the board of trustees of North South University (NSU) Azim Uddin Ahmed and five others on charges of embezzling nearly Tk 3.04 billion in the name of buying land for the campus.

Another accused is -- Amin Mohamed Hilali, managing director of Ashaloy Housing and Developers Limited.

ACC’s Deputy Director Farid Ahmed Patwar filed the case.

The case states that over 9088 decimal land was bought in the name of permanent campus development of NSU with the consent of some members of the board of trustees bypassing the approval of the University Syndicate, University Grants Commission and the Ministry of Education.

They later withdrew cash from the buyer through cash checks in their own names and kept FDR in their own names.

They unjustly benefited themselves by committing illegal activities through misuse of power and embezzling university and government funds, according to the case.

In carrying out such illegal activities, they committed a punishable offence by resorting to fraud and forgery and exchanging commissions.