Contempt of court: Ex-chief judicial magistrate's jailed in morning, gets sentence halted in afternoon

The Chamber Judge's Court of the Appellate Division on Thursday afternoon suspended a High Court order issued in the morning sentencing former Chief Judicial Magistrate of Cumilla Sohel Rana to one month's imprisonment and fining him Tk5,000 for contempt of court.

Before the chamber judge's order, Sohel Rana appeared before the HC bench delivering the judgment around 2pm and applied for bail through a lawyer.

After the hearing, the court granted him bail on the condition that he appeal against the verdict with the Appellate Division.

Later in the afternoon, Chamber Justice M Enayetur Rahim suspended the HC order –  issued a few hours earlier – in view of Sohel Rana's leave-to-appeal application.

At the same time, the application was sent to the Appellate bench headed by the chief justice for a hearing on 20 October. 

The HC order will stay suspended till then.

In the morning, the HC sentenced Sohel Rana to one month's imprisonment for disobeying its order to suspend the proceedings of a case but granted him bail within three hours of issuing the sentence.

An HC bench of Justice Md Badruzzaman and Justice Masud Hasan Dolon had issued the order.

Senior lawyer Shah Manjurul Haque heard on behalf of Sohel Rana in the court.

Rana was ordered to surrender after the verdict.

Regarding the contempt of court, Shah Manzrul Haque told reporters, "The High Court had ordered a stay of proceedings in a criminal case. Later, the copy of this order went to Cumilla Chief Judicial Magistrate Sohel Rana. He disobeyed the order of the High Court and continued the trial."

He said although Sohel Rana tendered an unconditional apology to the court for disobeying the court's order, the court did not accept it.

Currently, Sohel Rana is attached to the Ministry of Law as an additional district judge