SC scraps petition by BNP leader Moudud, orders him to vacate Gulshan home

BNP leader Moudud Ahmed will have to move out of his home in the upscale neighbourhood of Gulshan in Dhaka, where he has been living for over four decades.

On Sunday, his petition for a review of the Appellate Division's verdict was turned down by the top court.

In August 2016, the appeals court overturned the High Court's order that had instructed authorities to transfer the ownership title of the house No. 152 in Gulshan-2 to Moudud's brother Monjur Ahmed.

The senior BNP leader had sought a review of that verdict.

The court also scrapped a case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission or ACC accusing Moudud of illegally occupying the house.

Two more review pleas -- one on the order to transfer the ownership title to Moudud's brother and the second over the scrapping of the ACC case -- have also been rejected by the Supreme Court.

The latest development means the senior BNP leader must vacate the house, but will not be prosecuted for ‘illegal occupation’.

The former BNP minister, who represented himself in court on Sunday, refused to budge as he said the verdict did not point out that the government was in charge of the property.

"We will take the matter to the owners of the house. Besides, the court will give some observation when the full verdict is available," he said after the verdict.

Asked whether he would move out if the government orders him to do so, Moudud said, "I will initiate legal proceedings, but will not vacate the house.”

Describing Moudud's remarks as 'audacious', Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said that if it had been anywhere else in the world, a politician would have left with dignity.

"The deed between Moudud's brother and the owner has been declared void by the Appellate Division, which said the power of attorney and the deed were forged," he told the media.

Moudud Ahmed. File photo

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam. File photo

Moudud must leave, the attorney general said.

The owner of the property, Austrian national Inje Mariah Platz, died on Mar 30, 1985 and the deed was dated Aug 10 of the same year.

"It means they moved the court for the property's title of entry, five months after the owner died. The appeals court ordered that it cannot be transferred to them," he added.

The Gulshan house originally belonged to Md Ehsan, a Pakistani national.

Ehsan received the rights on the house from the then Dacca Improvement Trust or DIT in 1960.

Ehsan's Austrian wife Platz was added as another owner to the house's documents in 1965.

The owners left Bangladesh in 1971 after the Liberation War started.

In 1972, the property was listed as abandoned after the couple did not return. Moudud moved into the house the same year.

The ACC filed a case in 2013 against Moudud and his brother accusing them of illegally occupying the property.

It said the BNP leader produced a 'fake' power of attorney for the property and has been living in the house as a tenant.

Moudud’s early career dates back to the late 1960s. As a young lawyer just back from London, Moudud joined Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's defence team in the Agartala Conspiracy Case.

After military leader Ziaur Rahman took over, Moudud became a part of the government. He served as a minister and the deputy prime minister in that regime.

Moudud also served as minister, deputy prime minister, prime minister and finally the vice president in the nine years of military dictator HM Ershad's regime.

He returned to the BNP in 1996 and served as law, justice and parliamentary affairs minister under the 2001-6 BNP-Jamaat alliance government.

The ACC case said that while serving as the deputy prime minister in the Zia regime, Moudud tried to exclude the Gulshan house from the list of abandoned properties and in 1980, the house was allocated to his brother with a payment of only Tk 100.

According to the case documents, the house's owner Platz issued a power of attorney for the property to one Mohsin Darbar in 1984.

A document produced by Moudud's brother in court shows that a deed was signed with Platz to sell the property.

In 1993, Moudud's brother went to a Dhaka court in an effort to implement the deed, but the case was scrapped.

He then challenged the decision in the High Court and won a verdict in his favour in 2005.

In 2008, RAJUK or the Capital Development Authority sought permission from the top court to challenge the order, but it was turned down.

In 2010, Moudud's brother then went to the High Court seeking the transfer of property ownership and the court granted his plea ordering the mutation of the house in his favour.

In 2014, RAJUK and the state filed separate pleas challenging that order and the Appellate Division overturned the HC verdict in 2016, which remains upheld after Sunday's order.