Police arrested Vidisha Siddique, the second wife of former president Hussain Muhammad Ershad, in connection with an 18-year-old fraud case involving the sale of a flat. Gulshan police station officer-in-charge Daud Hossain said she was detained from a restaurant in the capital at about 8:30pm on Tuesday after a court warrant was issued. A court sentenced her in May this year to two years’ rigorous imprisonment in the case.

The case was filed at Gulshan police station in 2008 by businessman Mosharraf Hossain Sikder, who alleged fraud over a flat at President Park in Baridhara. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Jamsed Alam delivered the verdict on May 20, sentencing Vidisha to two years’ rigorous imprisonment and imposing a Tk10,000 fine, with an additional month in jail for non-payment.

According to the complaint, Vidisha showed Sikder the flat on July 1, 2001 and agreed to sell it for Tk8 million. Sikder later paid Tk7.5 million through a pay order in the name of Abdul Razzaq. The flat was not handed over by the promised date, the complaint said. A Tk7.2 million cheque issued in 2005 was returned because of insufficient funds.