BNP leader Tuku has to go for fresh HC hearing in graft case

BNP leader Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku has failed to get a review of the Supreme Court’s verdict that set aside a High Court order acquitting him of graft charges.

The four-member Appellate Division bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha disposed of the former minister’s petition on Wednesday.

During the emergency regime in 2007, Tuku was sentenced to nine years in prison after a Dhaka court found him guilty of concealing information regarding assets worth Tk 49.61 million.

He later moved the High Court and in June 2011, was of acquitted of the charges brought against him by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC).

In 2014, the Appellate Division scrapped the High Court’s verdict following a petition by the ACC.

The court had then ordered fresh a hearing of Tuku’s appeal against the trial court’s verdict.

Wednesday’s order means Tuku, who served as the state minister for power between 2001 and 2006, has to go through the process of challenging his conviction once again.