The High Court on Thursday granted bail for six months to the wife and three children of former Awami League MP Dr HBM Iqbal who were convicted in a corruption case.
An HC bench of Justice Obaidul Hassan and Justice Krishna Debnath passed the order after hearing an appeal filed by them seeking bail in the case. Abdul Baset Majumder stood for Iqbal’s family members while Khurshid Alam Khan argued for the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC). On March, 8, a Dhaka court sent Iqbal’s wife Mamtaz Begum, two sons-Moin Iqbal and Imran Iqbal-and daughter Naurin Iqbal to jail after they surrendered before it in compliance with a Supreme Court order. In May 2007, the ACC filed the case against Iqbal, his wife and their three children for acquiring wealth illegally and concealing wealth information in statements submitted to the national anti-graft body. In March 2008, a court here sentenced Dr Iqbal to 13 years’ imprisonment and fined him Tk 50 lakh. The court also sentenced his four family members to three years’ jail. In the same year, the High Court stayed the lower court verdict and issued a rule asking the authorities concerned to explain why the sentence should not be scrapped.
In 2011, the High Court acquitted Iqbal of the charge. Later, the ACC filed a petition challenging his acquittal.
However, the ACC told the court in 2015 that they did not want to proceed with the petition.
On November 15 last year, the ACC again filed a petition with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the order against the convictions of Iqbal’s family members.
On November 27 of the year, the Appellate Division, led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, upheld the convictions of former AL MP’s wife and children.
