The daily Amar Desh acting editor Mahmudur Rahman was freed from jail on bail on Thursday after he was granted bail in a case filed on charges of attempting to abduct and kill former prime minister Sheikh Hasina鈥檚 son Sajeeb Wazed Joy in 2015.
He came out of Kashimpur Jail Part-2 at about 3:30pm after the bail order reached the jail, said jailer Amirul Islam.
His family, Bangladesh Nationalist Party leaders and activists from Gazipur city, Swechasebak Dal, and other organisations, gathered to welcome him at the jail gate.
Earlier in the morning, Mahmudur Rahman was granted bail by Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge As-Shams Jaglul Hossain following his bail petition in the case.
His lawyer Tanvir Ahammed Al Amin said, 鈥榃e have appealed against his conviction in the case.鈥�
鈥楾he court accepted the appeal, and allowing a plea filed by the defence, the court granted bail for him,鈥� he added.
Earlier, Dhaka additional chief metropolitan magistrate Mahabubul Haque on September 29 sent him to jail in connection with the case.
His lawyers said that the court sent him to jail as the court has no jurisdiction to allow him bail, considering the term of his sentence.
Mahmudur Rahman, also a former energy adviser to BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, returned home on September 27 after spending over five and a half years in self-exile in Turkey after the fall of the Awami League regime amid a student-led mass uprising on August 5.
On August 17, 2023, a Dhaka magistrate court sentenced five people, including journalist Shafik Rehman and Mahmudur Rahman, to seven years imprisonment in the case.
The other convicts are Jatiyatabadi Samajik Sangskritik Sangstha vice-president Mohammad Ullah Mamun, his son Rizvi Ahmed Caesar, and US based businessman Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan.
On August 3, 2015, inspector Fazlur Rahman of the Detective Branch of the police filed the case for plotting to abduct and kill Joy.聽
The police submitted a charge sheet against the accused people on February 20, 2018, mentioning Shafik and Mahmudur as the masterminds.
Mahmudur was arrested on April 11, 2013 at the Amar Desh office in the capital鈥檚 Karwanbazar area in a sedition case.
In 2016, he was shown arrested in the case in connection with plotting to kidnap and kill Joy. Later, Mahmudur was released on bail in November 2016 and left the country.
