Freezing Awal’s Bank Account: HC questions legality of lower court order

The High Court yesterday questioned a lower court order that asked the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to freeze bank accounts and seize property documents of former Awami League lawmaker AKMA Awal and his wife Laila Parvin in connection with two corruption cases.

The HC issued two rules asking ACC to show causes in four weeks why the order should not be declared illegal.

The bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Sardar Md Rashed Jahangir issued the rules after hearing two petitions filed by Awal and Laila, seeking its directives to scrap the lower court order.

In the petitions, they also requested the HC to order ACC to release their bank accounts and property-related documents, ACC's lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan, who received copies of the petitions, told The Daily Star.

Lawyer Sheikh Awsafur Rahman appeared for the petitioners while lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan argued for ACC.  

On May 25, the HC upheld the lower court order that asked ACC to freeze bank accounts and seize Awal and his wife's property documents.

Judge KM Emrul Kayesh of the Senior Special Judge's Court of Dhaka on January 17 ordered ACC to freeze 18 bank accounts and seize documents of 40 scheduled immovable properties of the two in the cases.