Bidisha Ershad sent to jail to serve two-year sentence
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Former president Hussain Muhammad Ershad’s former wife Bidisha Ershad has been sent to jail to serve a two-year sentence in a fraud case involving the sale of a flat. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Aminul Islam Junaid passed the order after a hearing on Wednesday.
Bidisha was brought before the court that day. Her lawyer Moniruzzaman Sobuj then sought bail on the condition that she would appeal the verdict. The state’s lawyer Syed Golam Mortuza Ibn Islam and the plaintiff’s lawyer Hemayet Uddin Khan Hiron opposed the bail petition. After the hearing the court rejected the bail plea and ordered that she be sent to jail. She was arrested from a restaurant in the capital at around 8:30 pm on Tuesday.
According to the case details the plaintiff Mosharraf Hossain needed to buy a flat in Baridhara. On July 1, 2001, Bidisha Hossain, wife of former president Hussain Muhammad Ershad, showed Mosharraf a flat and offered to sell it. An agreement was reached to sell a flat at President Park in the Baridhara area for Tk 8 million. On July 10, 2001, Bidisha Hossain called him to the Rajanigandha office in Banani. She then asked him to issue a pay order of Tk 7.5 million in the name of her friend Abdul Razzak. He paid the money through Standard Chartered Bank’s Karwan Bazar branch. Later an agreement for the sale of the flat was executed between the two parties.
According to the agreement the flat was supposed to be registered after obtaining approval from the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha and paying the remaining amount. Although the flat was promised to be handed over by July 10, 2002, it was not handed over even after a long period of time. When pressure was put on Bidisha Hossain to hand over the flat, she assured him that the money would be returned. On February 9, 2005, a check for Tk 7.2 million was issued. However, when the check was deposited at the bank within the stipulated time it was dishonored due to insufficient funds in the account. After delaying the matter with various excuses neither the money nor the flat was handed over. At the same time she allegedly threatened to kill him when he demanded a refund or the handover of the flat.
Mosharraf Hossain filed a case at Gulshan Police Station on February 7, 2008. The trial began with the framing of charges in the case on August 9, 2009. After the trial the court sentenced her to two years of rigorous imprisonment on May 20 this year. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Jamshed Alam delivered the verdict. She was also fined Tk 10,000 and sentenced to an additional one month in jail in default of payment. As she was absconding the court issued an arrest warrant along with a warrant for execution of the sentence.
