Babu Nagari bailed out

Junaid Babu Nagari, Secretary General of the Hifazat-e Islam, has been released from jail hours after he won bail in three cases from a Dhaka court.

The Chittagong-based Islamic group leader is in intensive care of BIRDEM hospital after spending 23 days behind bars pending trial.

Magistrate Shahriar Mahmud Adnan of Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrates Court granted the bail on Wednesday afternoon to the teacher of Darul Ulum Muinul Alam Madrasa at Hathazari in Chittagong.

Deputy Inspector General of prisons Golam Haider told bdnews24.com they lifted police watch after getting the document relating to his bail.

“The Hifazat secretary is free now. But he is being treated at the hospital,” he added.

There are still a number of cases pending against the madrasa teacher and his group.

Police declined comment on his health condition.

Prisons officials say Babu Nagari has diabetes which is why he was hospitalised. But they refused to provide details, as did the BIRDEM doctors.

The three cases against Babu Nagari, filed by Motijheel police, accuse him of murdering policemen, vandalism and other crimes, court Registrar Abdul Gaffar said.

Nagari, who was grilled in custody, has made confessional statement in a case over murders during the Motijheel rally of the outfit on May 5. He is also said to have revealed information on Hifazat's rally.

However, the other leaders of Hifazat rubbished his confessions.

Babu Nagari was arrested on May 6, a day after the Hifazat Dhaka blockade and Motijheel rally.

The government has been claiming there were plans for huge mayhem from the rally with opposition parties egging the Hifazat leaders to oust the government.

Babu Nagari reportedly admitted the charges to be true.

The court allowed the police to grill Nagari for four days in the murder case and nine days each in the two other cases filed for explosion of crude bombs and obstructing the law enforcers from performing their duties.