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Download PDF Detained Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina turned in her wealth statement to the jail authorities yesterday, showing about Tk 3.10 crore in assets, her lawyer said.
Deputy Inspector General (Prisons) Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui told The Daily Star that they received her statement and said “We will submit it to the Anti-Corruption Commission tomorrow (today)”.
The AL chief’s submitting the wealth statement follows about a two-month long legal battle with the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in which the Supreme Court on August 27 stayed a High Court decision that stalled the operation of the ACC’s notice on her and asked her to report wealth to the watchdog in seven working days.
Hasina’s tax lawyer Khandakar Moniruzzaman told reporters that “Sheikh Hasina cross-checked and approved the three-page statement before submitting it to the jail authorities”.
“Nothing has been concealed nor any false information given in the statement,” he said following a two-hour meeting with Hasina at the special jail on the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban premises.
The AL president’s wealth statement said she does not own any house or land and that most of her property are inherited, Moniruzzaman, her lawyer, said.
She does not have any property in Dhaka or abroad, he added.
Hasina mentioned that her sources of income have been salaries and benefits she received in her capacities as prime minister, lawmaker, opposition leader and the property she inherited.
She has about Tk 2 crore in eight accounts with Sonali, Rupali, Pubali and Agrani banks. Her wealth statement included her husband’s Sudha Sadan residence, estimated at about Tk 60 lakh, in the capital’s Dhanmondi neighbourhood.
Her other assets include a jute warehouse on a ten-katha land in Khulna’s Dighulia area. The warehouse has been priced at about Tk 50 lakh and shown as property inherited from her mother Fazilatunnesa Mujib.
The AL chief inherited 10 kathas of land and a pond on a six-katha plot in Gopalganj from her grandfather Sheikh Lutfar Rahman.
She and her sister Sheikh Rehana jointly inherited several bighas of land in Gopalganj’s Tungipara from her father, according to the wealth statement.
Hasina’s wealth assessment also included two cars she received as gifts from AL leaders.
The ACC in its July 17 notice directed Hasina to submit her wealth information in a week. She challenged the notice’s legality in the High Court on August 5, earning a suspension of it two days later.
The government appealed against the HC decision at the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, which stayed the HC order on August 27 and directed the AL president to submit her wealth report to the anti-graft body in seven working days.
September 3rd, 2007 at 11:06 pm
If Sheikh Hasina’a property is worth only 3.1 crores & accepted by the Court as true statement. Then she must be released immediately.
Because any tom ,dic & harry owing a house in
town areas of Bangladesh worth over TK two crores.
Where then graft cases against her.
Find the accurate statement or relase her.