HC questions legality of Khalidi’s bail

The High Court yesterday questioned the legality of a lower court order that granted bail  to Toufique Imrose Khalidi, editor-in-chief of online news portal bdnews24.com, in a corruption case.

The court issued a rule asking the state and Khalidi to explain in 10 days why the lower court order that granted him bail in the case should not be scrapped.

The HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Ahmed Sohel came up with the rule following a revision petition filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) challenging the lower court order of bail.

The ACC on July 30 filed the case against Khalidi, for allegedly depositing Tk 42 crore with no "legal source" to different banks.

Gulshan Anwar Pradhan, deputy director of the anti-graft watchdog, filed the case with ACC's integrated district office Dhaka-1, saying that Khalidi earned the money through illegal means by creating "fake documents".  Khalidi, however, has denied the allegations of corruption against him.

A Dhaka court on October 20 granted bail to Khalidi in the case.

The ACC on December 6 filed a revision petition with the HC  seeking cancellation of the lower court order that granted him bail.

Lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan argued for the ACC while Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin Manik represented the state during virtual hearing on the revision petition yesterday.