Bidisha Siddiq, former wife of late HM Ershad, former president and founder chairman of the Jatiya Party (JP), was released from Kashimpur Women’s Central Jail in Gazipur on bail on Tuesday, nearly two weeks after she was arrested in a fraud case.
She walked out of the jail at 5:12pm, jail officials said.
The High Court granted her bail on 6 September. Her release followed the arrival of the court order at the jail and completion of the required formalities.
Bidisha was sentenced to two years’ rigorous imprisonment and fined Tk10,000 by a Dhaka metropolitan magistrate court on 20 May in a case filed over an alleged fraud and embezzlement involving the sale of a flat.
She was ordered to serve an additional month in simple imprisonment if she failed to pay the fine.
As Bidisha was absent when the court delivered the verdict, it issued an arrest warrant against her.
Police arrested her from a restaurant in Gulshan on the night of 25 August. She was produced before a Dhaka metropolitan magistrate court the following day, which rejected her bail plea and sent her to jail.
She had remained at Kashimpur Women’s Central Jail since then.
Businessman Mosharraf Hossain filed the case with Gulshan Police Station on 7 February, 2008, accusing Bidisha of fraud and embezzlement in connection with the sale of a flat at President Park in Baridhara.
According to the case, an agreement worth Tk80 lakh had been reached with Bidisha over the sale of the flat.
Following her conviction, Bidisha moved the High Court challenging the trial court’s verdict and its orders relating to her bail.
After hearing her plea, a High Court bench granted her bail on 6 September.
The necessary documents reached the jail on Tuesday morning. After verifying the papers and completing the legal formalities, the authorities released her at 5:12pm.
