JCD leader, 5 others facing non-bailable charge get bail

The accused are JCD leader of Mirpur thana unit Mostafa Zaglul Pasha alias Pavel and his accomplices Anisuzzaman Bitu, Shahinul Alam, Rezaul Hassan, Mofizul Islam and Azizur Rahman.

Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Shafique Anwar granted them bail upon a bond of Tk 5,000 with two guarantors.

According to the prosecution, a team of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) raided a house at 48/3/B in Second Colony, Mirpur, at about 5:45pm on December 10, arrested the six from the area and seized seven contraband Yaba tablets, 30 mobile SIMs of different companies and Tk 43,330 from their possession.

Later, Delwar Hossain of Rab-2 filed a case under the Special Powers Act against them with Mirpur Police Station.

As per a provision of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), a lower court cannot grant bail to any accused arrested on a charge triable in sessions courts. This case is triable in sessions courts and such offence is punishable by death or life imprisonment.

Mohammad Shahidullah Miah, a senior lawyer, told The Daily Star that a magistrate should not grant bail to such offenders who are engaged in destroying the morals of youths. Moreover, the magistrate has no jurisdiction to grant bail to any accused arrested for possessing contraband drugs that is punishable by death or life imprisonment, he added.