HC orders lower court to hear bail petitions of Abbas, Annie

The High Court on Sunday ordered Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court to hold hearings on the bail petitions of BNP standing committee member Mirza Abbas and its Publicity Secretary Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie in separate cases over October 28 violence, reports UNB.

The HC bench of Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Md Atabullah passed the order after hearing the petitions.

Advocate Joynul Abedin accompanied by Advocate Sagir Hossain represented the BNP leaders while Deputy Attorney General Tushar Kanti Roy and Assistant Attorney General Salim Azad appeared for the state.

The HC also directed the CMM court to dispose of those within 15 days as per law.

On October 28, police filed these cases following the violence over the BNP's grand rally in Dhaka's Paltan.

Of them, 10 cases were filed against Mirza Abbas at Ramna, Paltan and Dhaka Railway Police Stations and two cases against Annie at New Market and Dhanmondi Police Station.

On January 10, the Dhaka CMM Court rejected their bail appeals.

Later, they filed separate writ petitions on January 15 seeking directives from the High Court to dispose of their cases upon acceptance of bail petitions.

BNP leaders Mirza Abbas and Annie were arrested on October 29 and 5 respectively. Since then they have been in jail.