A Dhaka court on Monday sent the four members of North South University (NSU) trustee board to jail in a case filed for embezzling fund of the university and laundering money.

The four NSU trustees --- MA Kashem, Benajir Ahmed, Rehana Rahman and Mohammed Shajahan --- landed in jail a day after the High Court rejected their bail petitions and handed over them to police.
Judge KM Emrul Kayesh of Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge's Court passed the order as Deputy Director of the Anti-Corruption Commission (CCC) Farid Ahmed Patwary produced them before the court.

Following the court order, the four NSU trustees were taken to Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj.

The court in its order also asked the anti-crime watchdog to interrogate the accused at the jail gate and complete the grilling within seven days.

Farid Ahmed Patwary, also investigation officer, argued that the NSU trustees are directly involved in embezzlement of university fund and money laundering and they need to be grilled.          When defence counsels prayed to the court for granting division to the accused in jail considering their social status, the court asked the jail authorities to take necessary steps in this regard as per the Jail Code.

Lawyers Mosharraf Hossain Kajol, Mir Ahmed Ali Salam and Mahmud Hossain Selim appeared for the ACC while Advocate Shahinur Islam stood the accused.

On May 5, the ACC filed a case against NSU trustee board Chairman Azim Uddin Ahmed, four members Benajir Ahmed, MA Kashem, Rehana Rahman and Mohammed Shajahan, and Ashaloy Housing, and Developers Ltd Managing Director Amin Md Hilaly for embezzling over Tk 303.82 crore of the university.
The accused misappropriated the money in the name of purchasing 9,096.88 decimals of land in Rupganj of Narayanganj district.

Earlier, the ACC probed the graft allegation against the NSU trustees following a complaint filed by Dr Sufi Sagar Sams, Adviser of the Protection for Legal and Human Rights Foundation.

Out of the six accused, the four NSU trustees moved to the High Court with a plea for granting them anticipatory bail in connection with the embezzlement and money laundering case.

Police on Sunday arrested the four NSU trustees after the HC had rejected their bail petitions.

Rejecting their bail petitions, the HC asked police to arrest the accused and produce them before a trial court within 24 hours. Soon after the court order, police came and arrested the four NSU trustees in the courtroom.