Abul Barkat gets bail in murder case

A Dhaka court yesterday granted bail to economist Prof Abul Barkat in a murder case linked to the July uprising.

Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Mostafizur Rahman passed the order following a bail petition, said Additional Public Prosecutor Shamsuddoha Sumon.

There is now no legal bar to Prof Barkat’s release from jail, said defence lawyer Mohammad Shaheenoor Islam.

Barkat was earlier denied bail by another Dhaka court on Monday, a day after he was shown arrested as a suspect in the case filed over the killing of 45-year-old trader Abdul Wadud, following an application from the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

Barkat, former president of the Bangladesh Economic Association and also a faculty member of Dhaka University, has been in jail since a day after he was arrested on July 10 last year by the DB in a corruption case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission over alleged embezzlement of Tk 297 crore through AnonTex Group.

The High Court granted him bail in the case on May 11 this year. The SC on May 21 upheld the bail order.