Dhaka – The Supreme Court (SC) on Sunday fined Food Minister Qamrul Islam and Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq Tk 50,000 each for their controversial comments about Chief Justice SK Sinha’s reported remarks during the appeal hearing of war criminal Mir Quasem Ali.
A seven-member bench of the Appellate Division, led by the Chief Justice, passed the order rejecting their plea seeking quashing of the contempt charges.
The ministers will have to suffer seven days’ jail in default to pay the fine, the order said.
The court also ordered giving the fine money to Islamia Eye Hospital and Liver Foundation of Bangladesh.
Earlier, the ministers appeared before the court around 9 am to give their explanations for their controversial comments.
On March 20, the same bench had fixed March 27 for a fresh hearing on the contempt rule after the hearing on a court order which asked the two ministers to appear before it on the day with their explanations.
On March 14, ministers Qamrul Islam and Mozammel Huq offered unconditional apology to the court for their remarks.
They begged the pardon in separate applications submitted to the Supreme Court through their lawyers.
Qamrul and Mozammel had demanded resignation of the Chief Justice for his reported remarks that ‘the prosecution is doing politics with the trial of condemned war criminal Mir Quasem Ali’.
They made the demands at a roundtable discussion organised by Ekatorrer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee in the city on March 5.
During the hearing of arguments on Mir Quasem Ali’s appeal petition on February 23, the Chief Justice purportedly expressed dissatisfaction over the activities of the prosecution and the investigation agency.
