The High Court yesterday cleared the way for a lower court to continue trial proceedings against former BNP law minister Barrister Moudud Ahmed in a corruption case filed during the regime of military-backed caretaker government.

The bench of Justice Obaidul Hassan and Justice Krishna Debnath passed the order rejecting a revision petition.

Moudud filed the petition with the HC challenging the legality of the trial proceedings of the case saying that there is no provision in Anti-Corruption Case (ACC) law of including his expenditure in the case statement. He also prayed to the HC to stay the trial proceedings.

Contacted, Barrister Moudud told The Daily Star that the ground on which the HC rejected the petition will be known once the full text of the order will be available.

He said he will move a petition before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court against the HC order after receiving its full text.

ACC lawyer Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan said there is no legal bar for the lower court to continue the trial proceedings following the HC order.

Special judge's court-6 of Dhaka is scheduled to record statements from the witnesses on July 26, he added.

A Dhaka court on June 21 framed charges against Moudud in the case filed by the ACC on September 16, 2007, with Gulshan Police Station on charge of amassing wealth beyond his known sources of income and withholding information about his assets. The FIR of the case said Moudud showed movable and immovable properties worth over Tk 13.23 crore in his wealth account submitted to the ACC on July 23, 2007. On May 15, 2008, the ACC pressed charges against Moudud alleging that he amassed wealth worth over Tk 7.38 crore through illegal means and concealed information about wealth worth over Tk 4.40 crore from the commission.