The top court has upheld an order granting anticipatory bail to bdnews24.com’s Editor-in-Chief Toufique Imrose Khalidi in a case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.

A three-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Justice Imman Ali passed the order on Monday after hearing the anti-graft agency's appeal against the bail order in favour of Khalidi, passed by the High Court on August 26.

“Why are you wasting our time by bringing this appeal to the Appellate Division?” a judge told the ACC lawyer after the hearing.

After bdnews24.com announced a Tk 500 million investment by an asset management company in the news publisher in October last year, the ACC began examining the deal and subsequently started a case against Khalidi on Jul 30.

The ACC had earlier moved the chamber judge of the Appellate Division to overturn the bail order issued by the High Court. But the virtual chamber court of Justice Md Nuruzzaman did not immediately respond to the ACC's appeal, paving the way for a full bench hearing on Sept 21.

The case alleges that Khalidi deposited Tk 420 million into different bank accounts after receiving the money “through fraud [and] in an illegal way by creating fake documents”.

But the ACC case dossier itself said that the money came through the sale of company shares owned by bdnews24.com and Khalidi, and it was indeed the same money deposited in the accounts of four banks.

Khalidi, who consistently denies the allegation of corruption, told the media at the beginning of the ACC investigation that bdnews24.com did stories that “hurt a very powerful lobby”, and are “paying the price” for what he believes is good, exemplary journalism done by his colleagues.