Staff Reporter :
High Court sought a provision of life-term jail sentence in trial of corruption and money laundering cases.
A High Court bench on Wednesday observed that there was a provision of maximum 12-year jail sentence in the much-talked about money laundering cases. It made the High Court bench very angry.
During the hearing in a bail petition of an accused of the Bismillah Group’s money laundering case, the High Court confirm that corruption couldn’t be stopped in Bangladesh with the provision of lenient punishment in the law. “So, life-term jail sentence should be introduced by amending the existing law to curtail corruption,” the High Court said.
Earlier, the High Court awarded a 10-year jail sentence to eight persons of Bismillah Group including its chairman Khawaja Soleman for laundering Tk 15.33 crore from Bangladesh. Shoaib-ul-Kabir, one of the eight convicts, approached to the High Court seeking bail in the case.
At that time, the HC bench expressed utter frustration and anger witnessing the maximum punishment of 12-year jail sentence for getting involved in corruption and money laundering.
The High Court bench said in its observation that “even lower courts don’t have the jurisdiction to award punishment for half of the period which is mentioned in the law.”
