HC upholds order to freeze bank accounts of ex-MP Awal, wife

The High Court yesterday upheld a lower court order that asked Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to freeze bank accounts and seize documents of properties of former Pirojpur lawmaker AKMA Awal and his wife Laila Parvin in two corruption cases.

The bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Sardar Md Rashed Jahangir rejected two appeals filed by Awal and Laila, challenging the Dhaka court orders, on the ground that they were late in filing the appeals.

The HC bench asked them to move petitions in proper way -- under Section 561(A) of CrPC.

ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan said Awal and his wife were supposed to file the appeals in 30 days after the lower court passed the order as per the provision of relevant law.

The lower court delivered the order on January 17 but they filed the appeals after 77 days. Their appeals are not acceptable, he said.

Sheikh Awsafur Rahman, lawyer for Awal and Parvin, said the court delivered the orders on January 17, but its judge signed the order copy on March 3.

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.

On September 29 last year, ACC filed the cases with its Integrated District Office-1 of Dhaka. Awal was sued for amassing Tk 33 crore illegally while Laila for acquiring Tk 10.98 crore illegally.

On December 30, 2019, ACC filed another three cases against Awal and one against Laila for occupying a piece of government land behind the land office in Pirojpur Sadar upazila and building a two-storey building on it.

Awal rented the building to Pally Bidyut Samity and the rent agreement was signed by Laila. The couple received bail from the HC in all the cases.

Awal was elected MP from Pirojpur-1 in 2008 and 2014 elections.