ACC drops case against Awami League’s Abdullah

The Anti Corruption Commission has decided not to continue with its case against Awami League’s Sheikh Md Abdullah on charges of concealing information of his wealth.

Abdullah, the ruling party’s religious affairs secretary, was accused in the case filed in 2008 during the caretaker regime.

ACC Deputy Director (law) Sabera Sultana Khanam informed their lawyers about the decision.

ACC’s reluctance to pursue the case against a ruling party leader from Gopalganj comes amid accusations by the BNP that the national corruption watchdog is biased.

The case filed by ACC official Mojahar Ali Sardar accused Abdullah of hiding Tk 4.2 million from his wealth statement.

It was under the purview of Dhaka’s Special Judges Court-5.

Then High Court Justices Md Shamsul Huda and Abu Bakar Siddiqui gave a verdict on Aug 18, 2010, ordering the dropping of the case.

The ACC later filed an appeal against High Court’s decision in 2011.

The appeal came up in the court’s Cause List several times, the latest inclusion being for Monday, slotted as the 31st case to be heard that day. The case, however, was marked ‘not today’ on the Supreme Court website.

Meanwhile, a letter was sent to the lawyers of the case by ACC Deputy Director Sabera Sultana Khanam on Jun 8.

It said: “A lawyer was appointed against the High Court’s verdict on the criminal misc case filed by Mr. Sheikh Md Abdullah, following which a Criminal Petition for leave to appeal was filed.”

“The Anti-corruption Commission has decided to ‘not press’ leave to appeal in line with the decision taken on 08-06-2014. I hereby state that the ACC must be informed before any necessary steps are taken on this matter.”

When asked about the letter, Khurshid Alam Khan, an ACC lawyer in the Supreme Court, said: “MA Aziz Khan is the lawyer in this case. Maybe, he can talk about this matter.”

The ACC decision means it will no longer pursue its appeal against High Court’s verdict, he said.

“There is no chance of it being continued.”

“Advocate-on-Record made a request to mark ‘not press,’ lawyer MA Aziz Khan told bdnews24.com. “I don’t know the details. The Advocate-on-Record will know better.”

When asked why it was being dropped, he said: “When it was filed … it was said to have merit … so I filed it. Now, it’s (ACC) saying it won’t take it forward. So I won’t pursue it.”

Did the ACC ever give such a directive before? “I don’t know. AOR files them. They’ll know,” he said.

“I shouldn’t go there if they don’t want to press charges. AOR gave the letter, AOR will do it. I’ll probably not be there.”