Hasnat lands in jail
A Dhaka court yesterday sent Awami League leader Abu Hasnat Abdullah to jail after he surrendered before the court in a tax evasion case in which he was earlier sentenced to nine years' imprisonment in absentia.
Judge AK Roy of the Special Court-2 passed the order when Hasnat along with his lawyers appeared before the court around 12:30pm.
Abul Hasnat's lawyers submitted three petitions--one for providing him with proper treatment, one for providing first-class division in jail and the other for sending him to jail.
Moving for the petitions, lawyers told the court that their client had earlier surrendered to the High Court (HC) and sought bail. But the HC asked their client to surrender before the trial court within four weeks.
Special Public Prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajol did not oppose the petitions.
After the hearing, the judge directed the jail authorities to take necessary steps to provide Hasnat, also a former chief whip, with proper treatment and division in jail as per the Jail Code.
Meantime, Abul Hasnat's lawyers submitted another petition for showing him arrested in a graft case filed by Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
Sources say that his lawyers want Hasnat to be in jail for the time being so that they can move for his bail in higher courts.
On December 12, 2007, the same court sentenced Hasnat to nine years' imprisonment for dodging Tk 37.47 lakh income tax between 2001-02 and 2006-07.
The court also fined him Tk 40 lakh; in default of which he would have to stay in jail for six more months.
Assistant Tax Commissioner of National Board of Revenue (NBR) Mohammad Safiul Azam filed the case against him on October 25, 2007 in connection with evading Tk 37.47 lakh income tax.
On March 3 last year, Hasnat was given 13 years' imprisonment in a case filed against him for amassing wealth through illegal means and concealing wealth in the statement submitted to the ACC.
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