Dhaka, Nov 28 – A Dhaka court on Wednesday sentenced four people including the former mayor of undivided Dhaka City Corporation and BNP leader Sadek Hossain Khoka to 10 years imprisonment in a case filed for alleged corruption in leasing a multi-storey car parking in the city’s Banani area. Among the four, Khoka was also fined Tk 20 lakh while three others were fined Tk 10 lakh each.
The other accused are Abdul Baten, president of DCC supermarket in Banani; Mahmudul Hassan Azad, its general secretary; and AHM Tareque, manager of the market’s parking lot. Khoka, currently in London, was shown fugitive in the case while the three others are now on bail.
Judge Mizanur Rahman Khan, special judge for Dhaka division, handed down the sentence in absence of the convicts.
Earlier, on November 29, 2015, a court framed charges against the BNP leader and three others in the case.
On June 24, 2015, a lower court issued a warrant for the arrest of BNP leader Khoka as he did not appear before it during the hearing on the day.
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) deputy director Nur Hossain, also investigation officer of the case, submitted a charge-sheet against the four accused on November 11, 2012.
On February 15, 2012, ACC assistant director M Mahbubul Alam filed the case with Shahbagh police station on the charge of misappropriating Tk 30.82 lakh from the car parking project.
According to the prosecution, DCC invited a tender in 2003 to lease out Banani unique complex’s basement as car parking.
The DCC had been deprived of over Tk 30.82 lakh from February 2003 to February 2011 as then-mayor Khoka in connivance with other accused stayed the tender process. – Staff Reporter
