A Dhaka court today sent Bidisha Ershad, former wife of late Jatiya Party chairman and former president Hussain Muhammad Ershad, to jail in a fraud case in which she was convicted in May.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Aminul Islam Junaid passed the order after rejecting her bail petition, Moktar Hossain, a sub-inspector of the Prosecution Division at the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), told The Daily Star.

Bidisha was arrested from a cafe in Dhaka’s Gulshan yesterday following a conviction warrant.

On May 20, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Jamshed Alam sentenced her to two years in prison in the case. The verdict was delivered in her absence, said Hemayet Uddin Khan Heron, a lawyer for the complainant.

The court also fined her Tk 10,000, with an additional one month’s imprisonment in default of payment, he said.

During the trial, six prosecution witnesses testified before the court.

The case was filed with Gulshan Police Station on February 2, 2008 by AKM Mosharrof Hossain Sikdar, a businessman from Dhaka’s Pallabi area.

According to the case statement, Mosharrof paid Bidisha Tk 75 lakh on July 10, 2001, for a flat in Baridhara that was scheduled to be handed over by July 10, 2002.

However, the flat was not handed over despite several years passing, the complaint alleged.

Bidisha later issued a cheque for Tk 75 lakh, which was dishonoured on May 2, 2005, due to insufficient funds.

The complainant further alleged that he went to Bidisha’s Baridhara residence on January 26, 2008, to recover the money but failed to do so. He was later threatened when he made further attempts to recover the money.

Note: This report has been updated with the latest information at 4:45pm