Agora Chairman Niaz Rahim released on bail after jail sentence

Superstore chain Agora’s Chairman Niaz Rahim has been released on bail pending an appeal after a court sentenced him to a prison for selling adulterated ghee or clarified butter.

Special Metropolitan Magistrate of Dhaka South City Corporation’s court Md Mahbub Sobhani sentenced Rahim to a one-year prison sentence in each of two cases on Thursday afternoon.

It also ordered him to pay a fine of Tk 50,000. He will be slapped with an additional six months in prison if he fails to pay, the court said.

Judge Mehedi Pavel of the same court, however, granted him bail on a petition by Rahim’s defence team later on.

“We petitioned the judge for bail immediately after receiving the verdict,” defence lawyer Md Salahuddin Kabir told bdnews24.com.

“He dismissed it. We went to another judge at the court. He granted bail pending appeal considering my client’s illness on condition that we will appeal in the judge’s court.”

Niaz Rahim. Photo courtesy of Agora website.

Rahim went home after receiving bail.

“We will appeal as soon as possible,” his lawyer said.

A person with overall knowledge of Agora told bdnews24.com that private equity fund Brummer and Partners Asset Management Bangladesh Ltd, the local concern of the Swedish firm, owns majority share of the superstore now. It also controls the management of Agora.  

Rahim is also a group director of Rahimafrooz and serves as chairman of several concerns of the business group.

According to court documents, a mobile court seized ‘Kushtia Special Gawa Ghee’ and ‘Special Baghabari Ghee’ from the Moghbazar branch of Agora during the state of emergency in 2008.

Tests were conducted on the samples and the ghee was found to be adulterated.

Dhaka City Corporation Sanitary Inspector Fakhruddin Mobarak filed two cases against Niaz Rahim for the sale of the ghee under the 1959 Pure Food Ordinance.

Kushtia Ghee producer Abdul Quddus and Baghabari Ghee producer Anil Ghosh were also named in the case.

Quddus confessed to the crime and was fined Tk 50,000, Fakhruddin said. Niaz Rahim took the matter as far as the Appellate Division, but failed to get the case dismissed.

Anil Ghosh was released after sufficient evidence was not found to convict him.