Minu handed 13 yrs behind bars for extortion

Mizanur Rahman Minu

A tribunal in Rajshahi yesterday sentenced Mayor Mizanur Rahman Minu to 13 years in prison for extortion while in Dhaka Awami Swechhashebak League General Secretary Pankaj Debnath received 13 years' prison terms on different charges including illegal income.
Minu and 10 others were also fined Tk 20.5 thousand each. In default of the payment, they will have to be in jail for five more months.
One of the tribunals set up to deal with the graft cases sentenced Pankaj's wife Monica Debnath to six year's imprisonment. The second man of the AL front wing was fined Tk 10 lakh and Monica, who was tried in absentia, Tk 2 lakh. For failing to pay the fines, they will have to serve a year and six months more respectively.
MAYOR MINU
Rajshahi City Corporation Mayor Minu and nine of the accused--district BNP vice-president Nazrul Huda, BNP men Mainul Islam, Ranju, Islam, Ashraf Ali, Shamsul Haque, Sentu, Babu and Abdullah al Mamun--were in the dock during delivery of the judgment.
The other accused, former city BNP general secretary Shafiqul Haque Milon, is still on the run.
The judge started reading out the judgment at 12:50pm and completed within a couple of minutes.
The accused were sentenced to a month's imprisonment and fined Tk 500 for waylaying the complainant, 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Tk 10,000 for extortion, three years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Tk 10,000 more for threatening the subject of the crime.
The punishment to Shafiqul Haque Milon will take effect the day he surrenders or is captured.
Shamsul Alam Khan, a governing body member of the local Evergreen Model College, filed the case with Rajpara Police Station on April 21.
The Third Court of Additional Sessions Judge ASSM Jahirul Haque framed charges against them on July 26. Earlier on May 16, charges were pressed against 11 people.
Minu's wife Salma Shahadat said the extortion charges were brought by the authorities of a college that does not even exist. “The false case was filed as part of a conspiracy,” she added.
The defence lawyers however declined to comment before the media.
PANKAJ COUPLE
Pankaj has been sentenced to 10 years' rigorous and three years' simple imprisonment under the ACC Act for accumulating wealth worth over Tk 64 lakh illegally and concealing information from the Anti-Corruption Commission(ACC) about Tk 4.64 lakh.
Monica has been sentenced to three years under the same sections as well as section 109 of the penal code for earning through dishonest means and aiding her husband in accumulating assets disproportionate to the known sources of income.
The Special Court-1 set up in the MP Hostel in the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban complex also ordered the state to confiscate the property earned illegally. It observed that Pankaj kept the wealth in the name of his wife and mother Sabita Debnath.
The AL wing leader will have to serve 13 years in a row while sentences on his wife will have to be served concurrently. It added that the order against Monica would take effect on the day of her surrender or arrest, said the court.
Judge Firoz started pronouncing the judgment at 3:10pm and continued for about half an hour.
Before delivery, the court mentioned that Pankaj did not have any source of income while his wife would work at Arab Bangladesh Bank for a monthly salary of Tk 2,500.
ACC Assistant Director Abdul Latif filed the graft case with Dhanmondi Police Station on March 22.
Later, investigation gathered that the total wealth of Pankaj was worth about Tk 78 lakh including "Tk 14 lakh earned legally".
Investigation Officer Shahinur Rahman submitted charge sheet on June 5 and the Special Court-1 framed charges against the couple on June 27. It began taking deposition of witnesses on July 1.
ACC sources said that Pankaj owns a flat worth Tk 30.50 lakh in the name of his wife, a plot worth Tk 6.65 lakh in the name of his mother, and savings certificate worth Tk 32 lakh in Arab Bangladesh Bank in the name of his mother and wife.
He was detained on February 4 in the first raid as part of the crackdown on corrupt suspects.
Meanwhile, verdict in the bribery case against former communications minister Nazmul Huda and his wife Sigma Huda will be delivered today.
Judge Shamsunnahar of Special Court-4 will come up with judgment in four tax evasion cases against former minister Shahjahan Siraj's wife Rabeya Haider today.