Rafiur Rabbi gets bail after leave to appeal plea

The Supreme Court on March 31, 2016, granted bail to Rafiur Rabbi, father of slain schoolboy Tanvir Mohammad Toki, till January 5 next year in a cheque bounce case. File photo taken from Prothom Alo

Justice Mirza Hussain Haider, chamber judge of the SC’s Appellate Division, granted bail to Rafiur following a leave to appeal petition filed by him against the HC verdict, Rafiur’s lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star.

The apex court chamber judge also fixed January 5 next year for hearing the leave to appeal petition before the full bench of the Appellate Division, the lawyer said, adding that there is no legal bar to his client’s release from jail following the SC order.

According to the prosecution, Rafiur gave two cheques for Tk 70 lakh to Jalal Uddin Ahmed, uncle-in-law of Awami League lawmaker Shamim Osman, on February 8, 2012, but the cheques got bounced in a bank. Later, Jalal filed the case with a court on April 25, 2012.

A Narayanganj court on June 24 last year sentenced Rafiur, an organiser of the district Gonojagoron Mancha, to imprisonment for one year and also fined him Tk 2.10 crore in the case filed by a businessman.

Rafiur was sent to jail on March 29 this year after the High Court on February 15 upheld the lower court judgment that convicted and sentenced him.    

On March 8, 2013, the body of 17-year-old Tanvir Mohammad Toki, son of Rafiur Rabbi, was found on the bank of the Shitalakkhya River two days after he had gone missing.