Bidisha released from Kashimpur Women’s Central Jail

Bidisha Siddique, former wife of Jatiya Party founder chairman Hussain Muhammad Ershad, was released from Kashimpur Women’s Central Jail in Gazipur today (8 September) after securing bail in a fraud and embezzlement case involving the sale of a flat.

She was released at 5:12pm after jail authorities completed verification of the necessary bail documents, said Senior Jail Superintendent (additional charge) Nazrul Islam.

He said the bail papers reached the jail in the morning and Bidisha was released after the required verification process was completed.

A High Court bench comprising Justice Md Khairul Alam and Justice Md Rafizul Islam granted her bail on 6 September.

Advocates Fazlur Rahman Khan and Masud Mia represented Bidisha in court. Later, Masud said there was no legal bar to her release as she had no other pending cases.

Bidisha was sentenced to two years’ rigorous imprisonment by Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Jamshed Alam on 20 May in the case.

The court also fined her Tk10,000, with an additional month in prison if she failed to pay the fine. It issued an arrest warrant after she was absent when the verdict was pronounced.

Police arrested her from a restaurant in Gulshan around 8:30pm on 25 August. The following day, a metropolitan magistrate court rejected her bail petition and sent her to jail.

Bidisha subsequently sought bail from the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court after appealing against the trial court’s verdict. The court, however, rejected her plea on 2 September.

She then moved the High Court, which granted her bail four days later.

The case was filed with Gulshan Police Station on 7 February 2008 by businessman Mosharraf Hossain, a sanitary products importer and trader from Mirpur-10.

According to the case documents, Mosharraf approached Bidisha in 2001 to purchase a flat in Baridhara. They later entered into an agreement for the sale of a flat at President Park for Tk80 lakh.

After her release today, Bidisha left the jail compound in an autorickshaw before later travelling towards Dhaka in a red Pajero with relatives.