Dhaka, July 26 (bdnews24.com) – A special Dhaka court dealing with high-profile corruption case Thursday found former state minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir guilty on two counts of corruption and sentenced him to 13 years in jail.
Shahed Nuruddin, the judge of the Special Judge's Court-3, found Alamgir guilty of earning a huge amount of money through illegal means and concealing information about his wealth.
Alamgir, who was the state minister for planning in Sheikh Hasina's 1996-2001 administration, is to serve out 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for corruption and three years of normal term for suppressing information.
The court also fined him Tk 10 lakh, failing to pay which he has to stay in jail for another year.
Alamgir's lawyer Syed Rezaur Rahman said his client did not get justice and they would move the High Court to overturn the trial court verdict.
The former bureaucrat-turned-politician is one of the high-profile corruption suspects to be on a list of 50 people published by the Anti-corruption Commission on February 18.
The commission had asked the 50 including politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats to submit their wealth statements by a 72-hour deadline from the publication of the list.
His brother, Borhanuddin Khan Jahangir, turned in the statement to the ACC on Feb. 22 on behalf of Alamgir since he was in jail awaiting trial.
Earlier on Feb. 3, joint forces arrested Alamgir at his Banani home.
Alamgir in his statement had claimed to have 15 to 16 acres of land at Gulbahar in Chandpur district, a four-storey house on a plot of 4.25
katha
plot at Banani in Dhaka, 7 to 8
katha
land in Comilla Housing Estate, a one
bigha
plot at Ashulia, Tk 90,000 in bank, and Tk 90 lakh in saving certificates.
But the ACC was not happy with the statement.
On March 6, ACC deputy director Jiban Krishna Roy filed a case with Tejgaon Police Station accusing Alamgir of concealing information about his wealth and making illegal money.
On April 29, ACC investigator Sharmin Ferdousi filed a chargesheet with Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court for Dhaka, accusing him of hiding the fact of his having Tk 1.17 crore in six fixed deposit accounts.
On May 21, ACC deputy director Syed Iqbal Hossain in a supplementary chargesheet said their investigation found undeclared wealth worth more than Tk 2.10 crore.
The special court examined 38 prosecution witnesses while seven renowned persons including former caretaker government adviser Akbar Ali Khan, economist Abul Barakat and engineer Mohammad Shahidullah testified before the court.
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