Court Correspondent :
The High Court Division of the Supreme Court yesterday stayed the suspension order of Gazipur City Corporation Mayor MA Mannan for three months.
A High Court Bench of Justice Syed Mohammad Dastagir Hossain and Justice Mohammad Ataur Rahman Khan passed the stay order a day after the Local Government Division suspended the Mayor for the third time. After two and a half years, Mayor Mannan resumed office on June 18. Earlier, on May 31, the Appellate Division paved the war for Mannan to discharge his duty as a Mayor.
Defence lawyer Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokon said, from now, there is no legal bar for his client Mannan to sit in the office again. The court passed the verdict after the Gazipur Mayor filed a writ petition on Sunday challenging his dismissal.
A letter suspending mayor Mannan issued by the Local Government Division reached the Gazipur City Corporation office at around 3:30 pm half an hour after Mannan left the office on Saturday. Half an hour after, the authorities appointed pro-Awami League Ward Councillor Asadur Rahman Kiron as acting Mayor.
Earlier on June 12, last year, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed a case against Mayor Mannan with Joydebpur Police Station on the charge of misappropriating over Tk 4.9 million of the City Corporation, through unsigned fake vouchers. Later, the ACC submitted the charge sheet of the case to a Special Judge Court of Gazipur on January12, this year. Later on January 18, the court took cognizance of the charge sheet.
Mannan, an adviser to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was elected GCC mayor on July 6, 2013 beating an Awami League candidate by around one and a half lakh votes. He assumed office on August 18 the same year.
On February 11, 2015, police arrested Mannan for his alleged involvement in an arson attack on a bus in Gazipur on February 4. The next month, local Awami League leader Asadur Rahman Kiron, an ward councilor, was made acting mayor upon a court directive.
