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Published : 12 May 2026, 03:52 PM
The High Court has granted bail to former chief justice ABM Khairul Haque in two murder cases filed with Jatrabari Police Station and Adabor Police Station.
On Tuesday, a bench comprising Justice KM Zahid Sarwar and Justice Sheikh Abu Taher granted him bail and issued a rule.
With this order, he has now secured bail in all seven cases filed against him. According to his lawyers, there is no longer any legal barrier to his release from jail.
Senior lawyers representing Khairul in court included Md Monsurul Haque Chowdhury, Motahar Hossain Saju, Saeed Ahmed Raja, Jahangir Hossain, and Monayem Nabi Shaheen, among others.
State counsels were Additional Attorney General Abdul Jabbar Bhuiyan, Deputy Attorney General Syeda Shajia Sharmin, and Assistant Attorney General Md Emdadul Hanif.
Motahar told reporters that bail was granted today in the two murder cases filed at the Jatrabari and Adabor police stations. With this, bail has been granted in all seven cases against him, and since there are no other pending cases, there is no obstacle to his release.
He further said that Khairul’s name does not appear in the FIRs of these two cases. After receiving bail from the High Court in five earlier cases, he was shown arrested in these two murder cases on Mar 30. After failing to obtain relief in the lower court, he applied for bail in the High Court last Sunday.
On Apr 28, the Appellate Division upheld Khairul’s bail in five separate cases: the murder of a Jubo Dal activist in Jatrabari during the July Uprising, allegations of forging the caretaker government verdict, and separate cases filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
On Jul 24, 2024, police arrested Khairul from his residence in Dhanmondi. He was later shown arrested in the murder case of Jubo Dal activist Abdul Kaiyum Ahad in Jatrabari during the July Uprising. He has remained in jail since then.
Regarding allegations of forging the verdict related to the caretaker government system, a case was filed against him at Shahbag Police Station on Aug 27 last year by Supreme Court lawyer Mujahidul Islam Shaheen. Two more cases on the same allegation were filed earlier on Aug 25 at Fatullah Police Station and the Port Police Station.
The ACC also filed a case against him in August last year over allegations of unlawfully receiving a plot of lamd.
After lower courts denied him bail in these cases, Haque applied to the High Court. On Mar 8, the High Court granted him bail in four cases, and on Mar 11, it granted bail in the ACC case. Although the state separately sought to stay those bail orders, on Apr 28 the Appellate Division dismissed those applications and upheld the High Court’s decisions.
Haque assumed office as the country’s 19th chief justice on Sept 30, 2010, and retired on May 17, 2011.
On May 10, 2011, an appellate bench led by him annulled the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, rendering the caretaker government system used for elections illegal.
After his retirement, Haque was appointed as the chairman of the Law Commission for a three-year term on Jul 23, 2013. He was reappointed to the post several times.
He eventually stepped down from the post on Aug 13 after the fall of the Awami League government on Aug 5.
