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Published : 15 Oct 2017, 01:37 PM
Justice Sinha faces graft charges
AG sees truth in charges against CJ
Justice Sinha said it all: BNP
His statement came on Sunday, a day after the Supreme Court cited 11 charges, including graft, money laundering, financial misappropriation and moral lapse, against Sinha.
"Almost all of the allegations against him fall under the purview of the Anti-Corruption Commission. So you can assume who will lead the probe," Huq told the media in his office.
The Supreme Court on Saturday issued a rare statement with damning allegations that tainted the top judge’s career, just three and a half months before his retirement.
The statement signed by the top court’s Registrar General Syed Aminul Islam came, hours after Justice Sinha left for Australia on Friday amid harsh criticism by the ruling party stalwarts for scrapping the 16th constitutional amendment.
"These allegations need to be probed. A case will be filed if they are found to be true. Everything will be done under the law," Huq told reporters on Sunday.
Asked why the government allowed the chief justice to leave the country in the wake of the barrage of allegations, he said that Justice Sinha was still the chief justice according to the law.
"The chief justice is an institution and a constitutional position. So any hasty step against him will be inappropriate."
Justice Sinha has gone abroad on leave and the president, in line with the Constitution's Article 97, assigned the next senior judge Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah to lead the top court, said the law minister adding there's nothing controversial about it.
"A political quarter is trying to create a controversy as they ran out of things to talk about. Those who were trying to create a controversy had political agenda, which they failed to achieve," he said in clear reference to the BNP and its allies.
The BNP alleged that Justice Sinha was forced to go abroad on leave.
Before heading to the airport on Friday, Sinha said he was ‘not sick, but embarrassed’ by criticism by ruling Awami League leaders over the 16th amendment verdict, contradicting his letter publicised by Law Minister Huq.
In a written statement, he said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina may have been ‘hurt' because 'a quarter misinterpreted the verdict to her'.
Huq said on Sunday he was shocked to learn that Sinha dismissed the reports of his illness.
"I am shocked at what he said. He wrote to the president that he was ill, and seven days later he says he's fine. We should have asked him to undergo a medical test in the very beginning, but we did not do that."
