Ex-BNP MP Munshi jailed for 13yrs

A special court yesterday sentenced former BNP lawmaker Manzurul Ahsan Munshi to 13 years in jail for acquiring wealth illegally and concealing information on his property.
Judge Ashraf Hossain of Special Court-5, however, acquitted Munshi's detained wife Mazeda Ahsan Munshi and their absconding sons barrister Rizviul Ahsan Munshi and Rizwanul Ahsan Munshi of all the charges against them as those were not proved.
Munshi was handed down 10 years' rigorous imprisonment for acquiring wealth illegally and three years' simple imprisonment for concealing information in his wealth statement submitted to the ACC. He will have to serve total 13 years in jail, as the sentences will run consecutively, not concurrently.
The court also fined him Tk 65 lakh, in default of which he will have to serve an additional year in jail.
The court ordered release of Mazeda who was sent to jail following her surrender to the court on July 8.
The court also ordered confiscation of some properties owned by Munshi. These include -- a flat in Gulshan-1, a Mercedes Benz car, a Nissan car and 3,619 shares of National Commerce and Credit Bank Ltd worth Tk 3.62. Both the cars were seized by the law enforcement agencies following Munshi's arrest.
The court, however, ordered that the former lawmaker's family can get back the seized cars if they pay Tk 2.24 lakh for the Mercedes and Tk 2.38 lakh for the Nissan, as Munshi concealed information about the amount of money in the prices of the cars shown in the wealth statement.
The judgment had been deferred twice earlier as Judge Ashraf Hossain fell sick on September 20, the first date fixed for delivering the judgment.
The judge read out the judgment after examining the investigation report, depositions of 49 witnesses, including two in defence of Munshi, statements of the accused and arguments of the prosecution and defence lawyers.
The joint forces arrested Munshi on May 28.
ACC Deputy Director Abu Sayeed filed the case with the Gulshan Police Station accusing the four of earning wealth and properties worth Tk 4.92 crore illegally that was kept concealed in their wealth statements.
The ACC issued a notice upon the lawmaker on February 18, 2007 asking him to submit wealth statement in 72 hours as he was included in the first list of high profile corruption suspects.
His wealth statement submitted on February 25 shows properties worth Tk 3.33 crore in his name and in the names of his wife and sons. Munshi later submitted a supplementary wealth statement of Tk 5.29 crore after ACC filed the case against him.
An ACC investigation found that Munshi had concealed information about his wealth worth Tk 1.17 crore and had earned Tk 5.37 crore illegally.
The ACC framed charges against the accused on July 9 while the charge sheet was submitted on June 17.