Bashundhara MD denied anticipatory bail

The High Court on Wednesday rejected Bashundhara Group Managing Director Sayem Sobhan’s anticipatory bail plea in the case over rape and murder of college student Mosarat Jahan Munia in Dhaka’s posh Gulshan area.

The court, however, granted Sayem’s wife a six-week anticipatory bail and removed Sayem’s bail application from its cause list.

The virtual bench of Justice Md Mostafa Zaman Islam and Justice KM Zahid Sarwar passed the order.

Assistant Attorney General Md Mizanur Rahman confirmed the matter to The Business Post on Wednesday.

When contacted, Sayem’s counsel Supreme Court senior lawyer Mohammad Yusuf Hossain Humayun declined to make any comment.

Sayem on September 16 filed an application with the High Court seeking anticipatory bail in a case filed against him over the rape and murder of Mosarat and the court heard the matter on Wednesday.

Police found Mosarat’s body in a flat in Gulshan area on the night of April 26. Her elder sister Nusrat Jahan filed a case with Gulshan police station against Sayem Sobhan for abetting suicide.

The police submitted the final report in the case to the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court and it accepted the report on August 18 resulting acquittal of Sayem.

Nusrat Jahan on September 6 filed another case with Dhaka’s Women and Child Repression Tribunal-8 against Bashundhara Group Chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, Sayem Sobhan and eight others on charges of murdering Mosarat after rape.

The tribunal later directed the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) to investigate the case.