HC clears way for trial

The High Court on Thursday cleared the way for continuing trial proceedings of a forgery case against Bashundhara Group Chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan Shah Alam and four others at the lower court.

Rejecting a petition for scrapping the case, the HC vacated its last year’s order that had stayed the trial proceedings of the case.

Following Thursday’s verdict, the accused have to surrender before the lower court to face the trial proceedings, Additional Attorney General Momtajuddin Fakir, and defence lawyer Ahsanul Karim told The Daily Star.

Selim Ahmed, the then director of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association, filed the case with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka on December 27, 2011 against Shah Alam, chairman and managing director of East West Properties Development Ltd, a concern of Bashundhara Group, and four others of the company on charges of committing forgery and misappropriating Tk 3.95 crore from him (Selim).

The four other accused are Sadat Sobhan, Shah Alam's son and one of the directors of the company, Mahbub Morshed Hasan, vice-chairman, Towhidul Islam, deputy managing director, and MA Hassan, assistant general manager of the company.

In the case statement, the plaintiff said he had bought three plots of five kathas of land each from the company's Baridhara project in 2007 at the company-fixed price of Tk 3 crore.

After the agreement, he had paid Tk 3.95 crore, including registration fees.

In the meantime, Shah Alam went into hiding after the caretaker government assumed power in January of the same year. After his return in 2008, he demanded another Tk 3 crore from the plaintiff, saying he would not hand over the plots otherwise, according to the complaint.

On October 30, 2011, the company refused to hand over the land or give back the money and told him that he could get the plots only by paying the additional amount, Selim alleged.