By IANS
Dhaka : The Dhaka High Court has bailed out a former Bangladesh minister and high-profile lawyer-politician, four months after he was held under stringent emergency laws for possessing imported liquor.
However, a release is unlikely for Barrister Moudud Ahmed, who has been a minister in many governments in the past three decades including holding the law portfolio in the Khaleda Zia government from 2001-06.
Police sources told the United News of Bangladesh (UNB) news agency that Ahmed had been booked in a number of other cases and his incarceration may continue.
Taking an adverse view of his detention April 13, a division bench of Justices Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman and Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury asked the government to explain why Ahmed was held under the Emergency Power Rules (EPRs).
The army-led joint forces had arrested Moudud Ahmed and reportedly seized 16 bottles of foreign liquor and 32 cans of beer.
Also recovered were 220 saris meant for the government’s relief fund to fight natural calamities.
The case was later placed under the EPR in an apparent bid to prevent him from seeking bail, The Daily Star newspaper said.
Moudud Ahmed is among dozens of once-powerful politicians, bureaucrats and business tycoons held during a drive launched by the caretaker administration against serious crime and corruption.