Sylhet: The High Court on Monday granted six-month bail to convicted industrialist Ragib Ali and his son Abdul Hye in a case filed for grabbing the endowment property of Tarapur Tea Estate through forgery.

The HC bench of Shawkat Hossain granted their bail following a revision petition, said Ragib Ali’s lawyer Abdul HalimKafi, reports the UNB.

Deputy attorney general Jahirul Haque represented the state while Abdul Halim Kafi, advocate A M Amin Uddin, Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, Barrister Mehedi Hasan Chowdhury stood for Ragib Ali and his son.

Earlier on August 9, Special District and Sessions Judge Dilip Kumar Bhoumik upheld the verdict of Sylhet’s Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) after hearing the appeal of Ragib and his son.

The special court also ordered the duo to surrender before the lower court concerned before September 17.

On September 12, A Sylhet court rejected the bail petition of industrialist Ragib Ali and his son Abdul Hye and sent them to jail for a second time in the case.

On February 2 last, a Sylhet court sentenced Ragib Ali and his son to 14 years’ rigorous imprisonment in the case.

The court also fined them Tk 10,000 each and they will have to serve three months more in jail in case of failure to pay the fine.

Later, they filed an appeal with the Sylhet Metropolitan Session’s Judge Court on February 16 against the judgment. In the petition, they also sought bail but the court denied them bail on May 24.

Later, they filed an appeal with the HC when the court granted one-year bail to the duo. 

On August 25, 1999, the then parliamentary watchdog on land affairs found that the Tarapur Tea Estate grabbed a vast area of an endowment property and set up several establishments on the land illegally.