Ershad’s former wife Bidisha arrested in fraud case

Police arrested Bidisha Siddiq, former wife of late president and Jatiya Party chairman Hussain Muhammad Ershad, from a restaurant in Gulshan on Tuesday night after a court sentenced her to two years in prison in a fraud case.

She was arrested from Arabica restaurant around 8:30pm following an arrest warrant issued by the court.

Gulshan Police Station OC Daud Hossain confirmed the arrest to Daily Waadaa, saying Bidisha was sentenced in a 2008 case filed over an alleged Tk 75.5 lakh fraud involving the sale of a flat.

“She will be sent to court tomorrow,” he said.

According to the case documents, businessman Mosharraf Hossain Sikder paid Tk 75 lakh in 2001 for a flat at President Park in Baridhara after Bidisha offered to sell it for Tk 80 lakh.

Although the agreement required her to hand over and register the flat by July 10, 2002, she did not do so.

When Mosharraf sought a refund, Bidisha issued him a Tk 72 lakh cheque in February 2005. The cheque was dishonoured due to insufficient funds.

Mosharraf subsequently filed a fraud case with Gulshan Police Station in 2008, alleging that Bidisha had neither returned the money nor handed over the flat and had threatened him.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Jamsed Alam sentenced her to two years’ rigorous imprisonment and fined her Tk 10,000 on May 20. She was also ordered to serve an additional month in simple imprisonment if she failed to pay the fine.

Bidisha had been absconding since the verdict.