Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Shafique Anwar granted them bail upon a bond of Tk 20,000 each with two guarantors after Dr Kamal and others along with their lawyers appeared before the court and sought bail.

Earlier on December 22, the investigation officer (IO) of the case pressed charges against 13 people including Dr Kamal, Rokan and Amir, showing 28 people as prosecution witnesses.

The other defendants obtaining bail are former Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) secretary advocate Enayetur Rahim, former SCBA vice president advocate Subrata Chowdhury, Barrister Tania Amir and advocates Sheikh Awsafur Rahman, Subrata Saha, Khairul Alam Pipul, Mohammad Khasruzzaman, Suhrawardi and Syed Mamun Mahbub.

Another accused Habibur Rahman, an outsider, did not appear before the court yesterday.

Moving the bail petition, advocate Syed Rezaur Rahman argued that all the defendants had obtained ad-interim anticipatory bail earlier from the High Court (HC) following filing of the case against them.

Moreover, the HC had granted bail to them for a period of six months from the date or till submission of the charge sheet.

As the IO had submitted the charge sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's (CMM) Court, the defendants appeared before the court seeking bail, the lawyer added.

The prosecution did not oppose it during the hearing on the issue.

Meanwhile, the defence lawyers submitted another petition to exempt all the defendants from personal appearance before the court on different dates of the case.

After hearing both sides, the magistrate granted bail to them and fixed January 14 for hearing on the issue. The court also will decide whether the charges brought against them would be accepted or not.

Barrister Omar Sadat, son-in-law of BNP leader and former minister Shahjahan Siraj, filed the criminal case with the CMM's Court on December 4 naming four lawyers and against 50 to 60 other unidentified lawyers and others for vandalising the offices of the chief justice and the attorney general, and also for disturbing court proceedings on November 30.

Those named in the complaint are Rokanuddin Mahmud, Enayetur Rahim, Subrata Chowdhury and Sheikh Awsafur Rahman.

In his complaint, Omar Sadat said Rokan asked the accused lawyers and outsiders to vandalise the chief justice's chamber, courtrooms and other public property, and also to threaten the attorney general.

The vandalism on the SC premises took place after the chief justice stayed the proceedings of three writ petitions minutes before a HC bench was about to issue a rule on a writ challenging the legality of the president's takeover as chief adviser to the caretaker government.

Leaders of the 14-party alliance and other political parties filed the writ petitions that also challenged the chief adviser's activities and announcement of the schedule for the next general election.