ACC moves to dispose of Haji Salim’s appeal after 5 years

The Anti-Corruption Commission on Monday moved to the High Court seeking a date for hearing afresh the appeal filed by ruling Awami League lawmaker Haji Mohammad Salim 11 years ago against a special court judgement that sentenced him to 13 years in jail.

The ACC took the move after New Age on October 28 published a report titled No ACC move in 5 years against Haji Salim’s appeal.

The commission on Sunday replaced its lawyer Md Abdul Aziz Khan with lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan to conduct Salim’s case.

‘The ACC has asked me to take initiatives for the disposal of Salim’s appeal expeditiously and accordingly I moved to the bench of Justice Md Moinul Islam Chowdhury and Justice AKM Zahirul Huq today (Monday) seeking a date for hearing Salim’s appeal,’ Khurshid told New Age.

He said that the bench would set a date for the hearing on Salim’s appeal.

On January 12, 2015 the Appellate Division, responding to an ACC appeal, cancelled a High Court judgement that on November 1, 2011 scrapped the special court verdict sentencing him to 13 years in jail for possessing wealth worth Tk 26.92 crore beyond his known source of income.

The Appellate Division in the verdict had also directed the ACC to take steps so that Salim’s appeal was disposed of in an expeditious manner through holding a fresh hearing on his appeal ‘on merit’.

But the ACC took no move in the last five years in compliance with the directive of the apex court for the disposal of Salim’s appeal.

Salim filed the appeal in 2009 against the jail term handed down by the Special Judge’s Court-7 on April 27, 2008.

Salim received a10-year sentence for possessing wealth worth Tk 26.92 crore beyond his known source of income and a 3-year jail term for hiding information to the ACC about his wealth worth Tk 10 crore.

The businessman-cum-politician was freed on bail in the case after he filed the appeal surrendering to a lower court in 2009.

Earlier, on October 28, 2020, ACC commissioner Mozammel Haque Khan at a press briefing said that the commission started collecting wealth information about Salim and his son Irfan Salim.

ACC commissioner’s statement came after Salim’s son Irfan and Irfan’s bodyguard were jailed for one year by a mobile court of the Rapid Action Battalion on October 26 for possessing illegal walkie-talkies and liquor.

The RAB raided Salim’s houses in Lalbagh and arrested his son Irfan, also Dhaka South City Corporation ward 30 councillor, on October 26, a day after Navy Lieutenant Wasif Ahmed Khan filed a case against Irfan and his associates for assaulting him.

The navy officer was assaulted by Irfan and his cohorts at the Kalabagan crossing on October 25 following an altercation after Salim’s car hit the officer’s motorbike.

Various crimes, including grabbing of government and private lands, by Haji Salim were revealed by victims after his son Irfan was arrested and suspended as councillor following the assault on the navy officer.

Haji Salim’s associates allegedly demolished some of Old Dhaka’s historical sites and heritage buildings in recent years with the reluctance of law enforcement agencies to prevent such acts.

Though there are laws and regulations to prevent the construction of structures within 250 metres of heritage buildings, Haji Salim built high-rises putting such sites in danger, alleged archaeologists and campaigners.

Heritage site preservation campaigners alleged that High-rise commercial structures, owned by Haji Salim, have been built near Bara Katra in violation of the Antiquities Act’s stipulation that a 250-metre buffer zone has to be maintained around an archaeological site.

In Chawkbazar, the 16-storey Madina Ashique Tower was built within a few metres of heritage sites Bara Katra and Chhoto Katra, said campaigners.

They blamed Rajuk for allowing high-rises that put heritage sites in danger.

According to some locals in Old Dhaka, though most of the residential or commercial buildings Haji Salim has built there violate Rajuk rules yet the authorities remain silent.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net