BNP leader Ishraque freed on bail

BNP leader Ishraque Hossain was freed from jail on Tuesday evening, hours after he was granted bail in an arson attack case.

He walked out of Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj around 6:15pm as the bail order reached the jail authorities, said jail sources.

BNP's Dhaka south city unit leaders and activists received him at the jail gate.

Earlier in the day, Ishraque secured bail, six days after he was arrested and jailed in an arson attack case.

Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Tofazzal Hossain passed the order on a bond of Tk5,000.

Ishraque's lawyer Taherul Islam Tawhid said his client was out of the country on the day of incident of torching a vehicle for which he was arrested.

He said the BNP leader was granted bail as he submitted the proof before the court in this regard.

Earlier on 6 April, police arrested Ishraque Hossain, while he along with Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal leaders was distributing leaflets highlighting the Awami League government's failure in controlling the prices of daily essentials and against its alleged corruption.

Police said they arrested Ishraque, son of former Dhaka city mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, as an arrest warrant was pending against him in a case filed over setting a car on fire near the Bangladesh Bank building in the capital in 2020.

Ishraque was BNP's mayoral candidate in the last Dhaka South City Corporation elections.

An FIR was lodged against 42 people in connection with vandalising and torching a vehicle on 12 November, 2020. Ishraque was made an accused in the case.

On 18 November, 2020, the BNP leader secured bail from the High Court in the case.

On 5 January, 2021, he surrendered before a lower court after completion of his bail period, granted by the High Court and sought bail again in the case.

On 18 August, 2021, the court issued a warrant for the arrest of Ishraque after rejecting his bail petition in the case.