Dhaka: The High Court issued a divided order on the anticipatory bail petition of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader and Dhaka South City Corporation mayoral candidate Mirza Abbas.

High Court benches headed by Justice Kamrul Islam Siddique and Justice Gobinda Chandra Thakur issued separate orders on Wednesday afternoon.

Senior judge Kamrul Islam Siddique granted a three week anticipatory bail to Mirza Abbas. However, junior judge Gobinda Chandra rejected the bail plea of the BNP leader. 

Mirza Abbas’s lawyer, Mahbub Uddin Khokon, said the divided order will be placed before the chief justice and he will form a new bench for the cases.

Mirza Abbas could not be arrested as one of the judges granted his bail, said Mahbub Uddin.

Earlier, on 13 April, Mirza Abbas filed petitions with the High Court seeking interim bail in three cases. On 28 December 2014, police filed a case against the BNP standing committee member, Mirza Abbas, with Paltan Police Station on charges of setting fire to a bus and bombing.

On 4 January this year, Motijheel police filed another case against Abbas under the Explosive Substances Act.

On 6 March last year, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the other case against some people with the Shahbagh Police for graft allegation in plot allotment.

Although Abbas was not named in the FIR, he filed the bail plea in the case fearing arrest.

The affidavit he submitted to the Election Commission with the nomination paper shows there are 37 criminal cases against him and he had been accused in 24 cases in the past.