The High Court’s rejection of BNP leader Moudud Ahmed’s review petition against the legality of the cognizance by a lower court of ACC’s charge that he grabbed a government house is by no means a certificate in support of the charges. It’s a question of whether Moudud’s questioning of the legality of taking cognizance of the same was right. HC has said it was not.
The case will pass the stage to be fought once the Appellate Division where Moudud has announced his plan to take the matter to is also adudges not legal. It’s not rare for the Appellate Division to turn down HC decisions. One should wait and see.One however finds that Barrrister Moudud Ahmed’s possession of the house is many decades old, and during this time he and his family have seen transition of power to and from many hands. He is probably the lone person among the senior political leaders who has had been asssociated with all the three major parties – the AL, the BNP and the JP. Did not the predecessor of the ACC – the Bureau of Anti-corruption know if he had committed anything wrong?
The failure to detect the alleged graft charge earlier should be unpardonable if there is really a prima face case. But the timing to file the case – December 2014 – when BNP was preparting for an all-out movement raises eye-brews. More so when even clean cheats are given to people linked to those in the corrridors of power that they are not corrupt at all!
The High Court on Tuesday rejected a review petition challenging the legality of a lower court order taking cognizance of charges brought by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) against BNP senior leader Moudud Ahmed for allegedly grabbing a government house.
An HC bench comprising Justice Moinul Islam Chowdhury and Justice JBM Hasan passed the order after a hearing on Moudud’s review petition, which was filed on May 4 last.
ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told reporters after the hearing that now there remains no question about the legality of the lower court’s decision to take cognizance of the charges against Moudud.
In his reaction after the hearing, Moudud, who represented himself during the hearing, said the HC order was not fare, and that he will move an appeal against it.
Earlier on December 17, 2013, the ACC filed the case against Moudud and his brother Manzur on charge of grabbing a government house worth about Tk 300 crore in the city’s Gulshan area.
Let’s hope Moudud proves clean as against the charges- UNB
