Court Correspondent :
A court here on Sunday took cognisance of the chargesheet against BNP’s standing committee member Barrister Moudud Ahmed and his brother Manzur Ahmed in a case filed by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) on charge of grabbing a government house in the city’s Gulshan area.
Dhaka Senior Special Judge M Zahurul Haque passed the order in presence of the BNP stalwart after an hour-long hearing from the prosecution and the defence counsel.
The court also issued a warrant for the arrest of accused Manzur Ahmed, now living in London, fixing October 22 for submitting the report on compliance.
On May 26, ACC deputy director Harun-or-Rashid submitted a chargesheet to the CMM court against the two brothers-Moudud and Manzur. The prosecution made 20 people as its witnesses (PWs) for testifying against the two accused.
On December 17, 2013, the ACC filed the case against Moudud and his brother Manzur on charge of grabbing the government house, worth about Tk 300 crore.
According to the first information report (FIR), the Dhaka
Improvement Trust, established in 1956 (now renamed as Rajuk), handed over a plot of one bigha and 14 katha in Gulshan residential area to Mohammd Ehsan on December 30, 1961. Later, the land was registered against his wife’s name, Inge Maria Flatz, an Austrian national, in 1965. Ehsan was a Pakistani national.
As Ehsan and Flatz (both non-Bengalis) had left the country before the announcement of the list of government abandoned houses (the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs) on January 21, 1972, the plot was included in the list of abandoned houses.
In August 1973, Moudud allegedly prepared a fake power of attorney of Maria Flatz to grab the land and used it to gain his own interest. Since then, Moudud had been living in the house showing himself as a tenant of Maria Flatz.
When Moudud was holding different posts as minister and deputy prime minister and prime minister during 1978-1989, he tried to grab the house abusing his power, the FIR said.
Later, in March 1984, he made another power of attorney of Flatz against the name of Mohsin Darbar (an unknown person). According to the mutual legal assistance request (MLAR), Flatz died on March 30, 1985. But, Moudud made a sale deal between his bother Manzur Ahmed and Mohsin Darbar using the power of attorney of a late person.
The FIR said the BNP leader has been using the house since 1978 making different fake documents against Manzur Ahmed’s name.
