BNP mayor candidate Ishraque to stand trial in ACC case

A court is going to try Ishraque Hossain, the BNP candidate for Dhaka South City Corporation mayor, on charges of hiding his assets.

Dhaka’s Fourth Special Judge Sheikh Nazmul Alam set Feb 9 to begin testimony of witnesses after framing charges against Ishraque on Wednesday in the case initiated by the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Ishraque, the son of the last mayor of undivided Dhaka City Corporation and recently deceased BNP leader Sadeque Hossain Khoka, was present in court.

He pleaded not guilty.

It comes on the sixth day of Ishraque’s campaign ahead of the elections slated for Jan 30.

Ishraque Hossain, the BNP candidate for Dhaka South City Corporation mayor, campaigning ahead of elections.

The ACC sent notices to Ishraque and his sister Sarika Sadeque in September, 2008 asking them to submit details of their assets, liabilities, loans, and sources of earnings. It also sought information on assets of people dependent on them.

The commission’s Assistant Director Md Shamsul Alam in August, 2010 prosecuted the siblings as they did not respond to the notices.

Ishraque and Sarika had moved the High Court challenging the notices, but the court dismissed their petitions.

It ordered them to surrender in the trial court in November, 2018 when they sought anticipatory bail.

Ishraque secured bail from the trial court on Dec 9 last year.

Nuruzzaman Tapan, the lawyer for the BNP mayoral candidate, claimed on Wednesday that his client had not received the ACC notice as he had been abroad.

The ACC had not sent the notice to both addresses mentioned in the case either, Tapan told bdnews24.com.

“And there had not been any neutral witness when the notice had been put up at the Mayor House in the presence of different government officials,” he added.

A court had sentenced Khoka to 10 years in jail in a corruption case two years ago.

The BNP leader, who had been in the US at the time of the verdict, died there in November last year.