BCB Director Russell granted bail till police submits report

A Narayanganj court granted bail to Showkat Aziz Russell, director of Bangladesh Cricket Board, in the drugs and arms cases file against him, until the police submits its reports on the cases.

Narayanganj Chief Judicial Magistrate Faisal Atiq Bin Quader granted the bail on Tuesday against a bond of Tk5,000.

On November 4, a High Court bench comprising Justice Obaidul Hasan and Justice AKM Zahirul Haque granted Showkat Aziz Russell an interim bail in the cases filed by Siddhirganj Police Station in Narayanganj over the drugs and bullets recovered from his car.

The defendant's lawyers, Advocate Abul Kalam Azad said, "Showkat Aziz Russell was on bail granted by the High Court. Today, the High Court directed that his bail plea be surrendered to the Narayanganj Chief Judicial Magistrate, and the court granted bail until police reports are submitted."

On November 1, police claimed to recover 28 round bullets, 1,200 yaba tablets, 24 bottles of foreign liquor, 28 cans of beer, and cash Tk22,300 from Showkat Aziz Russell's car. 

Narayanganj Superintendent of Police (SP) Harun-ur Rashid disclosed the matter at a press conference at his office on November 2. Two cases had been filed with Siddhirganj police station against Showkat Aziz Russell and his car driver, Sumon.

Farah Russell, wife of Showkat, their son Anab Aziz, and the car driver Sumon were detained.

Later on, Farah and Anab were released under the custody of M A Hashem, Showkat Aziz Russell's father and the founder of Partex Group.

However, on November 3, a video was uploaded to the online portal News Bangladesh owned by industrialist Showkat Aziz Russell's business organization Amber Group. The viral video showed that a team of Narayanganj Detective police forcefully brought Showkat Aziz Russell's wife and son from their residence in the capital on the night of November 1.

Later that day, the Home Ministry issued a notice that Narayanganj SP Harun-ur Rashid had been transferred to the Dhaka Police Headquarters as Training Reserve.