bdnews24.com :
The High Court has commuted the five-year prison sentence awarded to BNP lawmaker Harunur Rashid for importing a car without tax as a member of parliament and selling the vehicle later in a breach of the rules.
The court also reduced the jail term of former Channel 9 Managing Director Enayetur Rahman Bappi and car trader Ishtiak Sadek in the tax dodging case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.
Justice Md Selim delivered the verdict after dismissing separate appeals filed by the three convicts on Thursday.
“Three appeals filed by the convicts were dismissed, amending the jail term awarded to them by the lower court. The jail term has been reduced to their time in custody,” according to the verdict.
Lawyer Mahbub Uddin Khokan and Sayed Mizanur Rahman argued for Rashid in court, while the national anti-graft watchdog was represented by ACC counsel Md Khurshid Alam Khan during the hearing.
“Rashid was behind bars for 16 months. The judge dismissed the appeals considering his imprisonment period as a punishment. He will face no problem with his MP post due to the verdict delivered by the High Court,” lawyer Khokan said.
“At least two years of jail term is needed to cancel a lawmaker’s post in the parliament. He will be able to run in the election as well.”
On the other hand, ACC counsel Alam said Rashid will not be able to retain the lawmaker’s post under Article 66 of the constitution, which ‘clearly shows’ his disqualification as an MP due to the breaching of ethics.
The BNP leader was sentenced to five years in jail and fined Tk 500,000 in the ACC case in 2019. The court also sentenced Bappi to two years in prison and fined him Tk 100,000 in the same case. Sadek was jailed for three years and fined Tk 4 million.
During the tenure of the BNP-led four-party alliance, the then lawmaker Rashid imported the vehicle enjoying the tax-free facility and sold it to the car trader Sadek, who later resold it to Bappi.
The anti-graft watchdog filed the case against the three with Dhaka’s Tejgaon Police Station on Mar 17, 2007.
After an investigation, it pressed charges against them on July 18 of the same year. Accepting the charges, the court started the trial on Aug 20, 2007.
