Staff Correspondent

The High Court has granted bail to Baul artiste Abul Sarkar in a case over hurting religious sentiments.

The bench of Justice Md Atoar Rahman and Justice Md Sagir Hossain gave the order on Monday.

However, Sarkar still has another case pending against him, which could bar his release from prison.

Sarkar's lawyer Gazi Kamrul Islam Sajal said, "The court granted bail to Abul Sarkar after the hearing because the case filed by Mufti Md Abdullah is under the bailable section."

On the night of Nov 20, a team of Manikganj Detective Branch (DB) police arrested Sarkar from a music festival in Madaripur. The next day, on Nov 21, Mufti Md Abdullah, the Imam of Gior Bandar Mosque, filed a case with Gior Police Station, naming Sarkar as a suspect.

He was shown arrested in that case and taken to the Senior Judicial Magistrates Court in Manikganj that evening, but the judge ordered him to be sent to jail.

Asked whether Sarkar would be released from prison after this bail order, his lawyer Sajal said: "I am handling one case and bail was granted in it today. The court has also issued a rule. If there is no other case against him, there is no obstacle to his release."

However, another case has been filed against Sarkar in Dhaka on charges of hurting religious sentiments.

On Dec 1 last year, Md Mahfuzur Rahman filed this case against him in the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Ariful Islam on charges of insulting religion, including hurting religious sentiments.

Mahfuzur is a professor at the Neurotrauma department at the National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital.

The charges in that case state that Sarkar made “disrespectful and insulting” comments about Allah in a song performed at a fair in Manikganj, which hurt the religious sentiments of the plaintiff. Charges were filed under Sections 295 and 295 (a) of the Penal Code.

Sarkar's family has not commented on the case.

Sarkar, a resident of Manikganj’s Saturia, and is known locally as “Chhoto Abul Sarkar”. He is the husband of Aleya Begum, a vocalist on “Kotha Koiyo Na”, a popular song performed on the programme Coke Studio Bangla.

Various cultural organisations have vocally protested Sarkar’s arrest as well as attacks on Baul artistes and followers in Manikganj. The “Ganatantrik Sangskritik Oikya” held a protest rally in front of the Jatiya Press Club on Nov 25 to demand his release.