BNP leader Khandker Mosharraf gets bail

The High Court has granted conditional bail to senior BNP leader Khandker Mosharraf Hossain in a case in which he is accused of siphoning off money.

His lawyer Khandakar Maruf Hossain said there was no legal bar now to Hossain's release after Wednesday's order.

Justices Md. Ruhul Quddus and Bhishmadev Chakrabortty's bench granted him bail after the BNP leader moved the High Court against a court order denying him bail.

Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) lawyer Khurshid Alam said they would move the Appellate Division against the order.

Defence counsel Hossain told bdnews24.com that documents related to the BNP leader's passport would have to be submitted to the court.

"He will need court's permission to travel abroad and he won't be able to do transaction through the confiscated bank account," the lawyer said.

The ACC on Feb 6, 2014 charged Hossain with siphoning off Tk 95 million between 2001 and 2006 when he was the health minister.

Former Dhaka University teacher Hossain has been a BNP Standing Committee member since 1994.

He claimed he neither siphoned off money nor earned it illegally.

According to him, he had earned the money between 1969 and 1973 while studying in London, by investing it in Britain's capital market.

The amount increased to Tk 95 million in all these years.

Police had detained him from his Gulshan residence on Mar 12 last year after the Appellate Division scrapped his bail secured earlier from the High Court in the case.

Dhaka's Special Sessions Judge's court dismissed his bail plea last November. After that he moved the High Court in December.

The court granted him bail on Wednesday after hearing the plea.

ACC lawyer Alam said the court had directed them to resolve the case swiftly in accordance with law.