A Dhaka court on Wednesday sentenced Bidisha Siddique, former wife of late Jatiya Party Chairman and former President HM Ershad, to two years’ imprisonment in a fraud case involving a flat.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Jamshed Alam delivered the verdict in the absence of the convict.
The court also fined her Tk 10,000, with an additional one month’s imprisonment in default of payment, and issued a warrant for her arrest.
The case was filed at Gulshan Police Station on February 2, 2008 by businessman AKM Mosharraf Hossain Sikdar of Dhaka’s Pallabi area.
According to the case statement, Mosharraf paid Bidisha Tk 75 lakh on July 10, 2001 for a flat in Baridhara that was supposed to be handed over by July 10, 2002.
However, despite the passage of several years, the flat was not handed over, the complaint said.
Later, Bidisha allegedly issued a cheque for Tk 72 lakh on February 9, 2005, which was dishonoured due to insufficient funds.
The complainant also alleged that instead of returning the money or handing over the flat, Bidisha delayed the matter on various pretexts and later threatened to kill him.