Shajahan Siraj surrenders, lands in jail
A Dhaka court yesterday sent former forest and environment minister Shajahan Siraj to jail in a tax evasion case in which he was earlier sentenced to eight years' imprisonment in absentia.
Judge Jesmin Anwar of the Special Court-4 passed the order after Siraj along with his lawyers Ashraf-Ul-Alam and Jakaria Haider surrendered before the court in the case.
The lawyers submitted three petitions--one for surrender to send him jail, another for giving Siraj with first class division while yet another for providing him proper treatment in jail.
On August 30 of 2007, the same court sentenced Siraj to eight years' imprisonment and fined Tk 2 lakh, in default, to suffer one year more imprisonment.
Assistant Commissioner Rahima Khatun of National Board of Revenue (NBR) filed the case against Siraj on July 16, 2007 for committing the offences.
Rahima in her complaint alleged that the accused had evaded a huge amount of tax upon his income for several years.
He gave false information to the income tax department about his income and expenditure and did not show his income tax returns, it said.
THE CASE
A special court on April 22 last year sentenced Siraj to 13 years' imprisonment in a case filed against him for amassing wealth through illegal means and concealing wealth statement to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
The court also fined him Tk 10 lakh, in default, to serve one year more in jail. The court directed the authorities concerned to confiscate his property worth Tk 3.75 crore, which was not match up with his income.
ACC Assistant Director Khairul Huda filed the case against Shajahan Siraj and his wife on September 24, 2007 for concealing information about property worth around Tk 4 lakh.
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