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Download PDF Former Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker Shahjahan Chowdhury was yesterday handed down 10 years’ imprisonment for corruption while Faisal Morshed Khan, former foreign minister M Morshed Khan’s son, seven years for aiding and abetting Shahjahan.
The Special Court-2 of Judge Amar Kumar Roy delivered the verdict in the illegal wealth accumulation and concealment case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on July 1 last year.
Alleged militant patron Shahjahan Chowdhury’s name was on the first list of 50 high-profile graft suspects made public by the ACC on February 18.
The court sentenced the former Satkania lawmaker and a member of Jamaat’s Majlis-e-Shoora (the highest policy making body of the party) to seven years’ imprisonment for amassing wealth beyond his known sources of income and three years for concealing information in his wealth statement that he had submitted to the ACC.
However, Shahjahan would have to serve seven years in jail altogether as the court ordered the sentences to be effective concurrently.
Former foreign minister’s son Faisal, also managing director of Pacific Motors and chairman of AB Bank Ltd, was given seven years’ imprisonment as the court found him guilty of aiding and abetting the Jamaat leader in committing the crimes.
The court also fined the two accused Tk 1 lakh each, in default of which they will have to serve an additional three months in jail term.
Moreover, the court directed the government to confiscate Shahjahan’s Tk 49.49-lakh sport utility vehicle (SUV), a Range Rover V8, which he did not mention in his wealth statement.
Shahjahan Chowdhury was sent to jail after surrendering before a Chittagong court on October 29 while Faisal is still on the run. Faisal’s imprisonment will be effective from the day he surrenders to a court or is arrested.
On July 1 last year, ACC Deputy Director Abul Kalam filed the case with Bandar Police Station in Chittagong against Shahjahan Chowdhury, a fugitive at the time, accusing him of concealing information on Tk 50.49 lakh worth of wealth in his wealth statement. ACC Deputy Director Jahangir Alam investigated the case.
On October 1, the ACC investigator submitted charge sheet against Shahjahan and Faisal.
Charges were framed against the accused on November 4 in Chittagong Divisional Special Court. The case was shifted to the Special Court-2 in Dhaka on February 12 this year.
The Jamaat leader is accused in five other cases including three for extortion and one for murder.
THE OFFENCE
After Shahjahan Chowdhury submitted his wealth statement to the ACC on February 20 last year, the ACC investigators found the SUV in his possession and seized it as the Jamaat lawmaker did not mention the SUV in the statement.
However, Shahjahan in his wealth statement mentioned that he had imported the vehicle under duty-free privilege of members of parliament. The automobile’s importer, Motor World Ltd, did not hand it over to him as he failed to pay Tk 50 lakh for it.
The ACC discovered that in August 2006, Shahjahan had released the vehicle by making the necessary payment through an LC (letter of credit) opened with Mohakhali branch of AB Bank Ltd and AB Bank Chairman Faisal Morshed Khan assisted him in the scam.
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