The Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) has launched a probe over terror suspects getting bail after the incident of securing bail with fake guarantors’ names on bail bond.
Bulbul Ahmed Sarker, who the police say is one of the top leaders of banned Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh’s (JMB) Chattogram (Chittagong) chapter, was granted bail by the High Court on Oct 18 last year.
The 26-year-old, who also went by the aliases Fuad, Rocky and Mehedi, is in jail since October 2015 after he was arrested from Chattogram with four others including, JMB bigwig Jabed.
Police had said that Jabed headed the banned group’s military wing while Bulbul was the second-in-command of JMB’s Chattogram unit.
Jabed was killed the day after his arrest in what the police claim “a grenade explosion” during a raid in the port city while in custody.
The remaining four, including Bulbul were prosecuted for terrorism. They were already named in several other cases.
The fact of a fictitious person’s name in the bail bond for Bulbul came to light when a PBI’s Chittagong-based Inspector Shantosh Kumar Chakma moved the court in November last year for Bulbul’s custody to interrogate him for an investigation.
The bail bond named two guarantors —Jalal from Tulshipara village in Gaibandha’s Gobindaganj Upazila, where Bulbul hails from and one Jamal from Icchanagar in Chattogram’s Karnaphuli area.
But the PBI failed to trace both of the guarantors, said Inspector Chakma. “No one with those names was found in the addresses given in the court document. We have opened a probe upon the court’s order.
According to the PBI officer, the two signatures appeared to be by the same person. “But the addresses are separate.”
Background check on Bulbul confirmed that his family could not afford to move the High Court. But his court battle continues in due process, which led the PBI to suspect that it was dealt in an organized way.
A court in Chattogram has already ordered an investigation, said public prosecutor Fakhruddin Chowdhury. “The order came after the PBI brought the court’s attention to the matter.”
This one case has led the PBI to look into bails granted to terror suspects across the country. Several suspects are now fugitive after securing bails on charges of terrorism.
“We are investigating the matter of guarantors in Chattogram as well as have started looking into other cases where terror suspects have been granted bail,” said PBI chief Deputy Inspector General Banaj Kumar Majumder.