The High Court on Sunday granted interim bail to Chumki Karan, wife of former Teknaf police station officer-in-charge Pradeep Kumar Das, in a corruption case where she was sentenced to a total of 21 years in prison for amassing illegal wealth.
The bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain issued the bail, considering her gender and the fact that she had already served two and a half years in prison, according to her lawyer Abdullah Al Mamun.
Earlier the bail application was moved by lawyer Mahbub Shafique after being rejected multiple times by other High Court benches during the pendency of her appeal against the jail term.
Abdullah Al Mamun moved Chumki鈥檚 fresh bail prayer after the Awami League government was toppled through a student-led mass uprising on August 5.
Anti-Corruption Commission lawyer Asif Hassan vehemently opposed the bail stating that Chumki assisted Pradeep in amassing the wealth beyond the known sources.
He told 抖阴精品 that the ACC was not in a position to appeal the decision immediately, as it has yet to be reconstituted.
Hassan said that he urged the office of Attorney General to challenge the bail order.
According to her lawyer, there are no further legal barriers to Chumki鈥檚 release.
Chumki was convicted on July 27, 2022, by a Chittagong court, which sentenced her to 21 years in prison and her husband, Pradeep Kumar Das, to 20 years.
She would need to suffer in jail for 10 years as her 21 sentences were concurrent, lawyer said.
The couple was found guilty of illegally amassing more than Tk 23.41 crore beyond their known sources of income, along with concealing assets worth Tk 4.21 crore.
Chumki had surrendered to the court on May 23, 2022, in the graft case.
Her husband, Pradeep, gained notoriety after being sentenced to death in January 2022 for the murder of retired army major Sinha Md Rashed Khan, who was fatally shot in July 2020.
A Cox鈥檚 Bazar court handed death sentences to both Pradeep and his accomplice, Liakat Ali, in the high-profile murder case.