Moudud allowed to draw money from frozen bank account

The High Court (HC) yesterday directed the government to permit former BNP minister Moudud Ahmed to withdraw Tk 5 lakh a month from one of his frozen IFIC bank accounts.
An HC bench of justices Mir Hasmat Ali and Shamim Hasnain also permitted Moudud to deposit money in his savings account with the same bank and withdraw money from it.
On March 5, 2007, following the directives of the National Board of Revenue five bank accounts of the former law minister were frozen in connection with tax evasion.
On May 22 last year, upon a writ petition filed by Moudud, the HC permitted him to withdraw Tk 1.25 lakh per month from the bank account. The court also issued a rule upon the government to explain why the act of freezing the bank accounts should not be declared illegal.
During the hearing yesterday Moudud prayed to the court for directing the government to reactivate his bank accounts.
Deputy Attorney General Zafar Imam told the court that the government would make decisions within a week on restoration of the bank accounts frozen during the tenure of the caretaker government.