SC stays Moudud’s land grabbing trial till Aug 30

The Supreme Court today stayed the trial proceedings of a land related graft case against senior BNP leader Moudud Ahmed till August 30.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the order following a petition moved by Moudud seeking a stay on a High Court order that cleared the way for a lower court to run the case.

The apex court also asked Moudud to file a leave to appeal petition against the High Court verdict by August 30.

The ACC filed the case with Gulshan Police Station on December 17, 2013 against Moudud Ahmed and his brother Munjur Ahmed on charges of grabbing government land worth over Tk 300 crore in Dhaka’s Gulshan area.

The Supreme Court on August 16 set August 23 (today) to hear a petition of Moudud Ahmed seeking stay on a HC verdict that cleared the way for a lower court to run a land-related corruption case against him.

After hearing arguments from the lawyers concerned, chamber judge of the Appellate Division Justice Hasan Foez Siddique sent the stay petition to its full bench and fixed the date for its hearing.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case with Gulshan Police Station on December 17, 2013 against former BNP minister Moudud Ahmed and his brother Monjur Ahmed on charges of grabbing government land worth over Tk 300 crore in Gulshan.

On September 14 last year, the Senior Special Judge’s Court of Dhaka took cognisance of the charges in Moudud’s presence.

On June 23 this year, the HC rejected a petition filed by Moudud challenging the legality of the lower court order accepting the charges.

The senior BNP leader filed the petition with the SC on June 28 seeking stay on the HC judgment.

ACC’s lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told this correspondent that the lower court concerned is set to hear charge framing of the case on August 30.