Singer Noble freed on interim bail in fraud case, apologises to fans

His lawyer says the singer returned the money he took in advance for a gig at a Shariatpur school

Singer Mainul Ahsan Noble has been freed on interim bail in a fraud case after the plaintiff raised no objection to his plea.

After walking free from the court’s custody on Monday afternoon, Noble apologised to his fans for not performing at gigs in Lalmonirhat and Shariatpur.

“I’ll do the cancelled programmes, for which a misunderstanding arose.”

Police produced Noble at the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court after a day in custody for questioning.

Investigation officer Humayun Kabir, an inspector of the Detective Branch, sought to keep him behind bars until the investigation in the case was complete, while the defence requested bail.

After the hearing, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Shafi Uddin issued the bail order, setting a bond of Tk 10,000 until the report is submitted.

A person named Safayet Islam started a case accusing Noble of embezzling funds from a gig at a school in Shariatpur. The court granted police a one-day remand of the singer after his arrest on Saturday.

Noble signed a contract promising to perform at a reunion at Shariatpur’s Bhedarganj Headquarter Pilot Government High School, organised by the students of the SSC 2016 batch on Apr 28. The singer took an advance payment of Tk 172,000 in several phases from the organisers but did not show up at the event, putting the organisers in trouble, according to the case dossier.

Noble’s lawyer Abdullah Al Mamun said “a misunderstanding” led to the case being filed and that Noble failed to attend the programme as he was ‘sick’.

The plaintiff and the accused now have an understanding and Noble refunded the payment he took in advance for the programme, the lawyer said. The court registry officer, SI Shah Alam of Motijheel police, later confirmed it.

After his remand ended on Sunday, police said Noble admitted to not attending concerts after taking money, assaulting his wife and other wrongdoings under the influence of drugs.

Police also said they identified the people who supplied drugs to the singer and they would face legal action.

The artist promised to return to normal life, said Harunor Rashid, an additional commissioner at Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Detective Branch.

Noble stirred controversies several times before.

Earlier on Apr 26, Noble made headlines when a disgruntled audience hurled shoes and water bottles at him during a performance where he went out of control, marring the golden jubilee event of a college in the northern district of Kurigram.

Noble, who shot to fame in 2018 and 2019 through the Indian musical reality TV show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, behaved erratically and tried to break the microphone stand on stage during his performance at the golden jubilee programme at Fulbari Degree College earlier on Apr 26. A video clip of the incident went viral on social media afterwards.

After a flurry of posts trolling rock star Faruq Mahfuz Anam James, Noble said his Facebook account was “hacked” into in 2021.

In 2020, the Indian police recorded a complaint against Noble on charges of making humiliating remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media.