DHAKA, Dec 29: A Bangla-deshi textile baron was re-arrested minutes after being released from prison where he was being held on corruption charges, police said on Saturday.

Redwan Ahmed, who owns a number of textile industries and is a former president of Bangladesh’s powerful textile exporters association, was released on bail late on Friday, six months after being detained as part of the emergency government’s anti-graft drive, police said.

But as he walked out of the jail’s hospital cell, where he was taken after falling ill, police arrested him under emergency laws, saying they feared he “could create law and order problems”, senior police officer Akhter Murshed said.

Ahmed, also a leader of the Liberal Democratic Party and a minister in a previous government led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was held in June on charges of money laundering and keeping alcohol at home.

He was also named in a list of top 50 corruption suspects by the country’s anti-graft body immediately after the emergency government took over early this year.

Bangladesh has been under emergency rule by an army-backed government since January, when disputed elections were cancelled after months of turmoil over vote-rigging allegations.—AFP