SC clears way for resuming trial of 27-yr-old corruption case against Ruhul Amin Hawlader

The Supreme Court has cleared the way for a lower court to resume trial proceedings of a 27-year old corruption case filed against Jatiya Party leader and former state minister ABM Ruhul Amin Hawlader.

The Appellate Division on Monday upheld a High Court verdict that on March 29, 2017 had cleared the way for the Divisional Special Judge's Court of Barishal to begin the trial proceedings of the case.

A three-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain dismissed a leave-to-appeal petition filed by Hawlader challenging the HC verdict.

After the HC delivered the verdict, the trial court did not run the trial proceedings of the case as the leave-to-appeal petition was pending with the apex court, Anti-Corruption Commission's (ACC) lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star.

The ACC lawyer said the SC dismissed the leave-to-appeal petition of Hawlader as there are specific allegation against him of misappropriating state money.

Now, there is no legal bar for the Barishal court to resume the trial of the case following the apex court's order, he said.

Lawyer Munshi Moniruzzaman appeared for Hawlader during the virtual hearing of his petition.

The then Bureau of Anti-Corruption (BAC) filed the case with Dumki Police Station in Barishal on October 2, 1994 against Hawlader on charge of embezzling Tk 1.23 crore which had been allocated for preventing river erosion and rehabilitating those affected by it.

The offence of embezzlement took place during the regime of HM Ershad-led Jatiya Party government when Hawlader was the state minister for agriculture, Khurshid Alam Khan said.