Charge framing in graft case against Ilyas Ali deferred

Sylhet divisional special judge Md. Golam Hossain on Tuesday deferred the charge framing against former lawmaker and district BNP chief M Ilyas Ali and his wife Tahsina Rushdi in the ACC case filed during the caretaker rule.
The judge also fixed the next date on 25 October.
Contacted, special public prosecutor Shah Moshahid Ali said the couple told the court that Tahsina had been granted interim bail from the High Court till 10 January of 2011.
The judge also extended the interim bail of Ilyas till 25 October this year, as his counsel prayed for time and told the court that his clients had appeared before the High Court for bail extension.
Accordingly, the judge reset the date for charge framing, the PP added.
Earlier, the District and Sessions Judge of Sylhet Md. Momin Ullah on 23 March this year granted ad interim bail to Ilyas Ali and his wife Tahsina Rushdi in the case.
The same court on 22 March issued warrant of arrest against the couple as they remained absent that day.
The ACC on 6 May of 2009 filed charge sheet in the case against the couple. The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Sylhet sent the case records to the District and Sessions Judge on 4 March this year, court sources informed.
The then ACC assistant director in Sylhet, Khandaker Enamul Basir filed the case on 21 July of 2008 with Sylhet Kotwali police station against the couple for accumulating wealth worth Tk 91 lakh beyond their known sources of income and hiding information.
The anti-graft watchdog issued a notice on Ilyas on January 28 that year asking him to submit his wealth statement to the commission. Accordingly, Ilyas submitted his wealth report to the ACC Sylhet office through his lawyer on February 14.
Ilyas remained absconding since January 2007 till mid July that year while his name was on the list of 50 corruption suspects published by the ACC.
In his statement, Ilyas showed his wealth worth Tk 3.99 crore. The property includes two vehicles worth Tk 1.5 crore, a house at Banani in Dhaka, money in cash and landed property at village and in the capital in his and his wife's names.
After investigation, the ACC found that Ilyas and his wife had concealed information of their 'illegally amassed' wealth worth Tk 91 lakh in the statement submitted to the commission.