Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Tuesday upheld 10 years’ imprisonment given to Haji Mohammad Salim, a Member of Parliament from Dhaka-7 Constituency, in a case filed on charge of possessing wealth worth Tk 269.2 million beyond his known source of income.
The court also upheld the fine of Tk 1.0 million imposed by the lower court.
However, the ruling party man was acquitted of three years’ imprisonment given by a special court on charge of concealing information of his assets in the same case.
The HC Bench of Justice Md Moinul Islam Chowdhury and Justice AKM Zahirul Huq delivered the verdict after holding hearing on an appeal petition filed by Haji Salim against the special court verdict.
Haji Salim has been asked to surrender to the lower court within 30 days of receiving a copy of the HC’s verdict.
The HC has asked the special court to issue an arrest warrant against him if he does not surrender within this period.
The court also acquitted Salim’s wife Gulshan Ara Begum as she died in November 2020 during the pendency of her appeal against her three years jail term given by the same special court.
Gulshan Ara was sentenced for abetting and aiding Salim in possessing the illegal properties he acquired since 1991. Haji Salim’s lawyer Sayeed Ahmed Raza said that they would appeal against the verdict.
Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan who appeared in the hearing on behalf of the ACC said he had already informed the ACC over the verdict. The organization will take decision whether it will file any appeal against the acquittal after getting the full text, added the lawyer.
The ACC lawyer also said that according to the Article 66(2)(d) of the Constitution Haji Salim has lost his qualifications for continuing as a Member of Parliament.
The HC Bench started the recent hearing on Salim’s appeal on January 31 in 2021 and concluded on February 24 following a recent ACC move.
The ACC recently filed a petition with the HC seeking expeditors hearing on the appeal petition in the case. Considering their petition the HC bench on November 11 last year called for all the records of the case.
The ACC on October 24, 2007 filed the case with the Lalbagh Police Station against Haji Salim on charge of possessing wealth worth Tk 269.2 million beyond his known source of income. The trial court on April 27, 2008 sentenced Haji Salim to 13 years’ imprisonment in two charges in the case.
Salim filed the appeal petition in 2009 against the jail term handed down by the Special Judge’s Court-7 on April 27, 2008. The HC on January 2, 2011 acquitted him of the charges by cancelling the special court’s judgement.
On January 12, 2015 the Appellate Division, responding to an ACC appeal, cancelled the HC judgement that scrapped the special court verdict sentencing him to 13 years in jail and asked to hold rehearing of Haji Salim’s appeal petition in the High Court.
But the ACC took no move in the last five years in compliance with the directive of the apex court for the disposal of Salim’s appeal. Recently the anti-graft body assigned new lawyer to conduct the case.
