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Shawkat gets bail

22 April 2010, 18:00 PM

METROPOLITAN

Court Correspondent

Two Dhaka courts yesterday granted bail to Shawkat Mahmud, adviser to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, in two defamation cases filed against him on charges of making derogatory remarks about Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina and State Minister for Law Qamrul Islam. Metropolitan Magistrate Mostafa Shahriar Khan granted bail to Shawkat in a case filed on March 25 by Advocate Moshiur Malek, president of Bangabandhu Foundation. The court of Metropolitan Magistrate Shahadat Hossain also granted him bail in another case filed on March 28 by lawyer PK Abdur Rob. The magistrates passed the bail orders upon a bond of Tk 5,000 with two guarantors after Shawkat along with his lawyers appeared before the courts and sought bail. In his complaint, Malek said Shawkat Mahmud, also president of the National Press Club, at a rally organised by local BNP at a hotel in Cox's Bazar on March 20 called Qamrul Islam a low quality lawyer that had tarnished the image of the state minister. While Abdur Rob, in his complaint, accused Shawkat of making derogatory comments about Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the same rally.