The Supreme Court on Wednesday turned down the pleas of BNP standing committee members Barrister Moudud Ahmed and Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain to quash the trial proceedings against them in two graft cases.
A four-member Appellate Division bench, headed by Chief Justice M Muzammel Hossain, also overruled a High Court order quashing trial proceedings against former BNP MP and Partex Group chairman MA Hashem in another graft case.With the Appellate Division orders, there is no bar to the continuation of the trial proceedings of the three cases filed by the Anti Corruption Commission against them, said ACC lawyer M Khurshid Alam Khan.
On September 16, 2007, the ACC filed a case against Moudud with Gulshan Police Station on charge of amassing wealth of Tk 73,848,287 from beyond known sources and concealing information of assets to the tune of Tk 44,037,375.
The graft watchdog filed the other case against Dr Mosharraf with Ramna police on January 10, 2008 for acquiring illegal wealth of Tk 12 crore and concealing information of wealth of Tk 3 crore.
The ACC pressed charges against the two BNP leaders in 2008. In 2012, the High Court turned down their petitions to quash the trial proceedings.
On the other hand, the ACC filed the case against MA Hashem with Ramna police on December 5, 2007. The charge-sheet was submitted against him in 2008.
Following an appeal, the High Court in 2012 quashed the trial proceedings.
Later, Moudud, Dr Mosharraf and ACC moved the Supreme Court against the HC orders in the three cases. After the rejection of the pleas Moudud told waiting newsmen that these cases were filed during the rule of the last caretaker government to politically victimise them. While such cases filed against leaders of the ruling party were withdrawn as political cases, those filed against the present opposition parties were continuing. – UNB
