Bangladesh News

The High Court (HC) yesterday ruled that the Anti-Corruption Commission’s (ACC) permitting its officials to file a graft case against former lawmaker Habibur Rahman Mollah was legal.

It also said the anti-graft body’s receiving investigation report from its officials and okaying the proposed charge sheet in the case were done with lawful authority.

Senior counsel for ACC Anisul Huq yesterday told The Daily Star that the HC verdict means the trial proceedings against Mollah will go on. The same fate awaits similar cases pending with the HC including those against former prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia.

The bench comprising Justice Mohammad Anwarul Haque and Justice Farah Mahbub came up with the ruling yesterday in response to the former Awami League lawmaker’s petition for dismissing the charges against him of amassing illegal wealth and giving false information to the commission.

Khurshid Alam Khan, the ACC lawyer who moved the case, said at least 400 petitions of same nature challenging graft cases have been pending with the HC.

He said yesterday’s ruling has given the ACC guidelines for conducting cases against the graft suspects. This would be the reference point for ACC lawyers in trial of the other cases.

Khurshid said the HC has stayed case proceedings in over 200 corruption cases and issued rules on the government and the ACC asking them to explain why the proceedings should not be quashed or declared illegal.

The stays and rulings came in response to around 400 petitions challenging the case proceedings.

According to HC observations in the case of Habibur Rahman Mollah, the provisions for all three ACC commissioners to approve filing of a case, submitting a report within 30 days since the opening of an enquiry, and investigation report within 60 days since the filing of the case were directory, not mandatory.

Previously, the HC had granted bail to the accused, stayed proceedings against them and issued rules to examine if the ACC officials were legally bound to submit enquiry reports within 30 days after getting charge of the probes and investigation reports within 60 days after filing of the cases.

The court also wanted to be sure whether all three ACC commissioners needed to sign the letters permitting its officials to file the cases.

On October 3 last year, ACC Assistant Director Syed Ahmed filed the case against Habibur Rahman Mollah with Ramna Police Station. The charges include concealing information about wealth worth over Tk 2 crore in his statement to the ACC.

On April 21, ACC Assistant Director and investigation officer (IO) Mahabubur Rahman submitted the charge sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s (CMM) Court in Dhaka, showing 25 people as prosecution witnesses.

Following a petition by Mollah, the HC stayed the case proceedings and directed the government and ACC to explain why the proceedings should not be adjudged illegal.

The HC judgment came after hearing for four days.

Abdul Matin Khasru appeared for the petitioner.