Nazmul Huda faces ACC prosecution for bringing ‘false charges’ against SK Sinha

The Anti-Corruption Commission is preparing to prosecute senior politician and lawyer Nazmul Huda having found “no truth” in the bribery charges he had brought against former chief justice Surendra Kumar Sinha.

Sayeed Mahbub Khan, an ACC director general, revealed the move on Wednesday against Huda for bringing “false charges”.

Huda, a Supreme Court lawyer, initiated a case against Sinha when the ACC started examining allegations of loan fraud and money laundering against the former top judge after Sinha resigned and left the country two years ago.

ACC Director Syed Iqbal Hossain conducted initial investigations into Huda’s case to weigh whether the commission should launch a formal inquiry by approving the charges he brought.

In the final report, Iqbal mentioned the charges brought by Huda as “intentionally false”, Mahbub said.

The commission has now approved a case against Huda on allegations that he provided false information, according to Mahbub.

Huda’s reaction to the ACC move was not available immediately.

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The ACC, however, approved on Wednesday charges of loan fraud and money laundering against Sinha and 10 others, launching a formal investigation into a case that involves Tk 40 million in suspicious loans from The Farmers Bank.

A former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Huda was a top leader of the BNP once. He had also served as communication minister in Khaleda Zia’s cabinet.

The president of the Bangladesh Nationalist Alliance or BNA now, Huda was sentenced to seven years in jail and his wife Sigma Huda to three years in a case started during the 2007-08 military-controlled caretaker government on charges of taking Tk 24 million as bribe.

The High Court acquitted them in 2011 following their appeal, but the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court cancelled the High Court verdict and ordered a rehearing of the couple’s plea following the ACC’s petition.

Justice Sinha was an Appellate Division judge at the time.

After the rehearing, another High Court bench upheld the conviction of the couple but reduced Huda’s sentence on Nov 8 in 2017.

The then chief justice Sinha “influenced a High Court bench” to issue an order against him in 2017, Huda had alleged.