The High Court has granted bail to Bidisha Siddique, former wife of late president Hussain Muhammad Ershad, in a fraud case filed with Dhaka’s Gulshan Police Station, in which she had been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.
Lawyer Masud Mia said that since there are no other cases against Bidisha, the High Court’s bail order means there are now no remaining obstacles to her release.
A HC bench comprising Justice Md Khairul Alam and Justice Md Rafizul Islam approved her bail on Sunday morning.
Lawyers Fazlur Rahman Khan and Md Masud Mia represented Bidisha in the bail hearing.
Earlier, on 2 September, Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Shahjahan Kabir had rejected her bail plea.
On 20 May, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Jamshed Alam sentenced Bidisha to two years’ imprisonment in the case over fraud in the sale of a flat. She was also fined Tk10,000, with an additional one month’s imprisonment in default.
Following that verdict, a warrant of sentence was issued against her. Acting on the warrant, police arrested her from a restaurant in Gulshan on 25 August night.
The next day, 26 August, the court ordered her to be sent to jail.
Her subsequent bail plea was rejected on 2 September. She then applied to the High Court, which, after hearing the petition, granted her bail on Sunday.
