Shahid Commissioner gets bail

A Dhaka court yesterday granted ad-interim bail to Saidur Rahman Shahid alias Shahid Commissioner in an illegal arms possession case on humanitarian grounds considering his illness.

Judge Ruhul Amin of the Fourth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court of Dhaka decided on it after Shahid's lawyer Mosharraf Hossain Kajol placed a petition saying Shahid had been suffering from ailments for long.

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Additional Public Prosecutor Saiful Islam said it should be rejected at this stage, for the complainant had given his deposition in the case Gendaria police filed on February 4, 2014 after Rapid Action Battalion arrested Shahid and seized four firearms, three of which were illegal, and 62 bullets at his residence.

One of Shahid's counsels told The Daily Star that there was no legal bar on Shahid's release from jail.

The former undivided Dhaka city corporation's ward 83 commissioner has been convicted in some cases, including those over murders and illegal firearms possession.

Awarded capital punishment in a murder case in the lower court, he was later acquitted by the High Court.

He participated in the 10th parliamentary polls on January 5 last year as an independent candidate from Dhaka-6 constituency. However, hours after polling began, he withdrew his candidacy alleging rigging. Jatiya Party candidate Kazi Firoz Rashid won the seat.