SC scraps acquital of Mamun

The Supreme Court yesterday scrapped a High Court judgment that had acquitted businessman Giasuddin Al Mamun of a corruption case.

On October 27, 2008, a special judge's court had sentenced Mamun, a close aide to BNP leader Tarique Rahman, to 10 years' imprisonment and fined him Tk 10 lakh for accumulating property worth Tk 101.73 crore beyond his known source of income.

In response to an appeal, the HC on July 30 in 2012 relieved Mamun of the graft case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission. 

The Appellate Division of the SC yesterday cancelled the HC verdict and asked it [HC] to hold further hearing on Mamun's plea.

A four-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha came up with the order following an appeal filed by the ACC challenging the HC verdict.

ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star that the SC cancelled the HC judgment that acquitted Mamun and asked the HC to hold fresh hearing on his appeal, as the HC did not properly examine the evidence on the corruption allegations brought against Mamun.

He also said Mamun, who was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment in a money laundering case on 17 November, 2013, is now in jail.

With Mamun, the SC has overturned the HC's acquittals of 20 people, mostly politicians and their family members, in corruption cases and ordered rehearing of their appeals against convictions in lower courts.

The 20 convicts whose acquittals were scrapped by the SC include Relief and Disaster Management Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, former BNP minister Nazmul Huda and his wife Sigma Huda, former BNP state ministers Iqbal Hasan Mahmood Tuku and Mir Mohammad Nasiruddin, Nasir's son Mir Helal Uddin and independent lawmaker and AL leader Haji Mohammad Selim.