A Dhaka court on Wednesday granted bail to expelled Dhaka Metropolitan South Juba League leader Ismail Chowdhury Samrat in a case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on charges of illegal acquisition of assets.
After the hearing, Al Asad Md Asifuzzaman, judge of Dhaka Special Judge Court-6 granted him bail till June 9.
Advocate Mahbubul Alam Dulal, Habibur Rahman held bail hearing on behalf of Samrat. Prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajal opposed the bail on behalf of the ACC.
After hearing both sides, the court granted bail to Samrat on a bond of Tk 10,000. After the bail was granted, his lawyers said that there will be no legal complications for Samrat to walk free out of the jail.
Samrat had earlier been granted bail in other cases too. With the bail on Wednesday, he got bail in all cases.
On behalf of Samrat, Habibur Rahman said the court has granted bail on three conditions- considering the illness, the condition of not going abroad and appearing in the court on each due date.
Earlier on October 6, 2019, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested Samrat and Arman after raiding a house near the border with Indian.
Samrat, one of the "casino kingpins" in Dhaka was expelled from the youth front of the ruling Awami League following his arrest. He came under the spotlight after RAB busted his illegal casino business at different sporting clubs in Dhaka.
Earlier on November 10, 2020, Samrat, who was the president of Dhaka South unit of Jubo League, and Arman, former vice-president of the same unit, were shown arrested in a 195 crore taka money laundering case.
On September 13, 2021, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) filed the case against the duo under the Money Laundering Act with Ramna police station.
According to the case statement, it was alleged that Samrat siphoned off 195 crore taka to Singapore and Malaysia, with the help of his aide Arman.
On October 7, 2021, Abdul Khaleque, deputy assistant director of Rab-1 filed two cases against Samrat at Ramna police station under the Arms and the Narcotics Act. Arman was also made accused in the narcotics case.
On November 4, 2021, Shekhar Chandra Mallik, sub-inspector of Rab-1 submitted a charge sheet against Samrat in the arms case.
On November 12, 2021, ACC filed a case against him for acquiring assets worth Tk 2.94 crore beyond his known sources of income.
Lastly, on November 26 last year, the investigation officer of the case, Jahangir Alam, submitted a charge sheet before the court.
