Court Correspondent :
Two more prosecution witnesses, including a Bench reader of Bangladesh Supreme Court, yesterday testified in a Dhaka court in a money laundering case filed against former Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha and 10 others.
The two witnesses are- SC Bench Reader Mahbub Hossain and Dhaka Bank’s Savar EPZ Branch Manager Abu Zahid Ansary.
Judge Shaikh Nazmul Alam of the Special Judge’s Court-4 of Dhaka recorded the depositions of the witnesses. But the defence lawyers declined to cross-examine the witnesses as they did not mention their clients’ names in the statements. The judge then fixed February 14 for next hearing of the case.
Witness Mahbub Hossain told the court that he withdrew Tk 80 lakh and Tk 60 lakh from Sonali Bank Limited of Supreme Court Branch on December 11, 2016 and on January 8, 2017 respectively. He later bought some savings certificates from a post office with some amount of money and handed over the rest of the money to SK Sinha.
While witness Abu Zahid told the court that he submitted some documents to the investigating agencies of SK Sinha’s nephew Sankhajit Sinha’s personal account at his branch.
On December 28 last year, SK Sinha’s elder brother Narendra Kumar Sinha and his nephew testified in the same court. Sixteen out of 18 prosecution witnesses, including the complainant testified so far.
Seven of the accused were present at the court on Tuesday while SK Sinha and three others are on the run.
On December 10 of 2019, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) pressed charges against SK Sinha and 10 others of the case. On August 13 last year, the same court framed charges against them.
Justice Sinha resigned on November 11, 2017, from abroad. Presently he has been living in the USA.
