ACC to prosecute Huda for suing Sinha
The Anti-Corruption Commission on Wednesday decided to file a case against former minister and Bangladesh National Alliance president Nazmul Huda for filing a case against former Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha with false information.
Relieving SK Sinha of charge, the commission took the decision to file a case against former Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Nazmul Huda as ACC investigator did not find evidences of demanding bribe from Nazmul Huda while he claimed in his complaint that SK Sinha demanded bribe from him and misused power, the commission director general Sayeed Mahbub Khan told reporters.
On September 27, Nazmul Huda, filed the case with Shahbagh police and late a Dhaka court asked the commission to investigate the matter.
Following the court direction, the commission assigned its director Sayed Iqbal Hossain to investigate the matter. But the commission probe did not find such involvement of SK Sinha, he said.
After filing the case, Nazmul Huda told New Age that he filed the case as Justice SK Sinha in 2017, when he was in the chief justice, demanded bribe from him.
‘He called me in his chamber and demanded the bribe. As declined to pay, he took some unconstitutional steps against me misusing his power as the chief justice,’ Huda said.
On November 8, 2017, the High Court reduced Nazmul Huda’s jail term to four years from seven years, finding him guilty of taking Tk 2.40 crore in bribe from owners of two construction firms in 2005.
It had also reduced the jail term of Huda’s wife Sigma Huda, also human rights activist.
The court had also directed Nazmul Huda to surrender to the trial court in 45 days after receiving the verdict.
Nazmul Huda said he could not surrender to the trial court since the High Court was yet to release full verdict.
The High Court gave the verdict after rehearing two appeals filed by Huda and Sigma against the convictions handed down by a special judge’s court on August 26, 2007.
On March 20, 2011, another High Court bench had set aside the convictions of Huda and Sigma on the ground that they were prosecuted illegally on orders issued by the commission secretary when there was no commissioners at the commission.
On December 1, 2014, after hearing the commission’s appeal, the Appellate Division stayed their acquittals and directed the High Court to rehear their appeals considering the merit of the trial court verdict. Justice Sinha was in the Appellate Division then.
This was the first out of two dozen cases sent to the High Court Division by the Appellate Division for rehearing.
A former Supreme Court Bar Association president, Huda resigned as BNP vice-chairman in 2012. He was a communication minister in BNP-led government in 2001-2006.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
