HC turns down petition challenging Tabith's candidacy

The High Court has turned down a writ petition calling for BNP-backed Dhaka North mayoral hopeful Tabith Awal's candidacy to be scrapped for concealing information about his wealth in his affidavit filed with the Election Commission.

AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury, a retired judge of the Appellate Division, appealed to the EC to cancel Tabith's candidature as a report on his wealth surfaced.

Justice Choudhury later moved the High Court after the EC failed to act on his complaint.

The bench of Justice JBM Hasan and Justice Md Khairul Alam heard the writ petition on Monday. Advocate Qumrul Haque Siddique represented the writ petitioner while Barrister Rokanuddin Mahmud and Khairul Alam Chowdhury appeared on behalf of Tabith.

The court observed that the documents submitted on Tabith's business interests in Singapore do raise questions about his wealth. “But the documents filed by the writ petitioner were not approved by the relevant authority. Therefore there’s doubt over its credibility,” the court said.

And with only four days to the Dhaka city election, the authorities do not have enough time to scrutinise Tabith’s wealth information, according to the court.

“However, any interested party can raise questions on his wealth information after the polls.”

After the hearing, Justice Choudhury said he will now take the matter to the Appellate Division.

“The elections are only four days away. There’s scope to scrutinise the matter after the elections. But in the meantime, we will appeal against the High Court order to the Appellate Division," he told bdnews24.com.

According to a report carried by Sweden-based Netra News, Tabith did not disclose in his affidavit that he is one of the owners of a company in Singapore.

“The firm is worth $2 million which is a huge sum of money for any country in the world. But Tabith did not mention it in his affidavit. His nomination must be cancelled,” Choudhury had said.