Corruption Case: HC upholds jail term for Mir Nasir, son
The High Court yesterday upheld a lower court verdict that sentenced former BNP state minister for civil aviation Mir Mohammad Nasiruddin to 13 years and his son Mir Mohammad Helaluddin to three years in a corruption case.
The court also ordered them to surrender before the trial court within three months after the trial court receives the certified copy of its verdict.
The HC bench of Justice AKM Abdul Hakim and Justice Fatema Najib delivered the judgment after it held appeals hearing for around 40 days.
The bench dismissed the appeals seeking acquittal of the charges brought against the two.
M Asaduzzaman, lawyer for Nasir and Helal, told The Daily Star that on receiving the HC verdict’s certified copy, his clients would move appeals before the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division challenging the HC judgment and for their acquittal of the charges after they surrender before the trial court.
Anti-Corruption Commission lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told this correspondent that the HC yesterday affirmed the trial court verdict as the allegations of corruption against Nasir and Helal, who were on bail, had been proved beyond reasonable doubt.
Their bail has been cancelled following the HC verdict.
On July 4, 2007, an anti-graft tribunal sentenced Nasir to 13 years for committing two corruption offences and his son Helal to three years for abetting his father.
The Special Court-2 set up at the MP Hostel in the parliament complex also fined Nasir Tk 50 lakh and said in default, he would have to spend another two years in prison.
Nasir was handed 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment for illegally accumulating wealth and three years’ simple jail for concealing information of wealth worth Tk 6,72,68,000 in the report he had submitted to the ACC.
Helal was jailed for three years and fined Tk one lakh for trying to withdraw and transfer about Tk 5.64 crore from their family joint accounts to the accounts of his wife and mother-in-law to help his father conceal property information, the ACC lawyer said.
The special court also directed the government to confiscate their wealth worth Tk 27,94,91,000 which is disproportionate to the known sources of income of Nasir and his son.
On March 6, 2007, ACC Deputy Director Sharmin Ferdous filed a graft case against Nasir with Gulshan Police Station for amassing properties illegally.
According to the charge sheet, Nasir, his wife late Dalia Naznin Nasir, their daughter and son have wealth worth Tk 29.22 crore. But they showed properties worth about Tk 22.50 crore in the wealth statement, hiding information of properties worth Tk 6.72 crore.
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