GRAFT CASE
HC asks housing minister to surrender
The High Court yesterday asked Housing and Public Works Minister Mosharraf Hossain to surrender before a trial court in six weeks in a case filed by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) for amassing wealth worth Tk 3 crore beyond known sources of income. The HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Amir Hossain came up with the order after rejecting a petition filed by Mosharraf challenging the legality of the trial proceedings in a graft case. The HC rejected the petition and passed the order when Advocate Abdul Matin Khasru, counsel for Mosharraf, told the court that his client would not proceed further with the petition. ACC lawyer Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan said that the HC scrapped a previous rule issued on the matter. There is no bar for the ACC to conduct investigation or the legal proceedings in the case as the higher court has lifted its earlier stay order on the case proceedings, Khan added. On November 25, 2007, the ACC filed the case with Ramna Police Station against Mosharraf on charges of amassing wealth worth Tk 3 crore concealing information. In August the next year, the Awami League leader from Chittagong moved the HC with a writ petition to scrap the charges. Following the petition of Mosharraf, the HC issued a rule staying the case proceedings and granted bail to him.
