Send records to CJ for decision on disposal of Ershad’s graft case: HC

The High Court today ordered its officials concerned to send all the records of corruption case filed against Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad to the chief justice for decision on disposal of the case.

The HC bench of Justice Md Ruhul Quddus came up with order after detecting from the documents that two appeals related to the 25-year-old case are pending with the HC, Anti Corruption Commission’s lawyer Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star.

The then government in 1992 filed the appeals praying for enhancing the sentence of Ershad in the 25-year-old case.

The court today also refrained from delivering the verdict on another appeal filed by the Ershad against a lower court judgment that jailed for three years in the case.

The HC judge said all the three appeals filed by then government and Ershad relating to the graft case will now be sent to the chief justice.

After receiving the records, Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha may assign the HC to hold hearing on all the three appeals simultaneously, ACC lawyer Khurshid said adding that the two government appeals were kept in the relevant office of the HC without any hearing.

Khurshid further said long time might not be needed for hearing and disposal of the three appeals, as the HC has already heard arguments on the appeal of Ershad and was set to deliver a verdict on it today.

The ACC lawyer said a complete justice will be done following hearing on the three appeals.       

The then Bureau of Anti-Corruption (Bac), which became defunct after formation of the ACC in 2004, had filed the case against Ershad with Cantonment Police Station in 1992 on the charge of misappropriating Tk 1.91 crore by misusing powers at different times when he was the president from December 11, 1983 to December 6, 1990.

On February 3, 1992, a Dhaka court convicted Ershad, also chairman of the Jatiya Party, and sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment for misappropriating the money and ordered the authorities concerned to confiscate the money and his Toyota Land Cruiser vehicle for committing corruption.