Saber walks out of jail after securing bail in all six cases

Saber Hossain Chowdhury, who served in ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina's cabinet as environment minister, has walked out of jail hours after receiving bail in all six cases filed against him.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Zihadur Rahman granted Saber bail today in a case related to the 2022 killing of a BNP activist, in which he was on a five-day remand.

The investigating officer of the case filed with the Paltan police station produced the former Awami League lawmaker in court on the first day of his remand, accompanied by a forwarding report.

In his report, Sub-Inspector Nazmul Hasan noted that Saber was unable to answer any questions during the interrogation. The conversation revealed that he is physically unwell and suffering from heart disease, with three stents implanted in his heart.

Interrogating him in police custody under these conditions is unlikely to yield the desired information. As a result, he was sent to court without further questioning during his five-day police remand.

On Monday, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mahbubur Rahman placed him on remand in a murder case regarding the death of Mokbul, who succumbed to a bullet injury in 2022 at the BNP party office.

On the same day, Saber, who was elected the 28th president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), an international organisation of national parliaments, in 2014, was also shown arrested in four other cases.

Saber was also granted bail yesterday in two murder cases and two attempted murder cases at the Khilgaon police station, as well as one more attempted murder case at the Paltan police station.

Around 6:30 in the evening, Saber, who held two deputy ministerial posts in succession between 1999 and 2001, was released from court custody.

He was arrested by the Detective Branch of Police in the capital's Gulshan area on Sunday and was subsequently shown as arrested in the Mokbul murder case.