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Bidisha Siddiq, former wife of late former president Hussain Muhammad Ershad, has appealed against her two-year jail sentence in a fraud case filed with Gulshan Police Station in Dhaka over the sale of a flat. She also sought bail pending disposal of the appeal, but the court rejected the plea.
Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Shahjahan Kabir rejected the bail petition after a hearing on Wednesday (September 2). Her lawyer said Bidisha will have to remain in jail for now.
Defence lawyer Md Mahmudul Kabir said, “We filed an appeal against the sentence, and the court admitted it. We also sought bail, arguing that Bidisha has a child with special needs and should be granted bail considering that she is a woman. However, the court rejected the plea due to insufficient grounds. We will challenge the order before the High Court.”
Earlier, on May 20, Metropolitan Magistrate Md Jamshed Alam sentenced her to two years in prison and fined her Tk 10,000. In default of payment, she will have to serve an additional one month in jail.
She was arrested from a restaurant in the capital at around 8:30pm on August 25 on the basis of a warrant issued following the sentence. The following day, August 26, the court denied her bail and sent her to jail.
According to the case filed in February 2008, complainant Mosharraf Hossain is an importer and businessman dealing in sanitary products in the Mirpur-10 area. In 2001, he contacted Bidisha with the intention of purchasing a flat in Baridhara.
The two sides later reached an agreement to sell a flat at President Park in Baridhara for Tk 80 lakh. According to the complaint, on July 10, 2001, Bidisha called Mosharraf to her office in Banani and asked him to issue a Tk 75 lakh pay order in the name of her nominee and friend Abdul Razzaq.
Mosharraf paid the money through Standard Chartered Bank’s Kawran Bazar branch, following which a sale agreement was signed between the parties.
Under the agreement, the remaining amount was to be paid after obtaining approval from the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK), after which the flat was to be registered in the buyer’s name. The flat was supposed to be handed over by July 10, 2002.
However, the complainant alleged that the flat was not handed over even after a considerable period.
When he pressed for the flat, Bidisha allegedly promised to return the money. On February 9, 2005, she issued a cheque for Tk 72 lakh, but the cheque was dishonoured when presented due to insufficient funds in the account.
The complainant further alleged that Bidisha subsequently delayed the matter on various pretexts and neither returned the money nor handed over the flat. He also alleged that he was threatened with death by hired criminals when he demanded the money or the flat.
The case also states that Bidisha told the complainant he would have to wait until she recovered the money from former president Ershad.
