A Dhaka court on Tuesday sentenced eight people, including Iqbal Uddin Chowdhury, former chairman of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), and two sons of late MA Hashem, founder chairman of Partex Group, to seven years of rigorous imprisonment in a plot corruption case.
Abdus Salam, judge of Dhaka Special Judge Court-9, handed down the verdict.
The two convicted sons of late MA Hashem are Showkat Aziz Russel and Ashfaq Aziz Rubel.
Russel is the chairman and managing director of Amber Group and president of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), while Rubel is the managing director of Partex Group and vice-chairman of City Bank.
The five other convicts are SD Foyez, former member (development) of Rajuk; AKM Wahedul Islam, former member (planning); SM Zafar Ullah, former member (finance); HM Johurul Huq, former member (administration and land); and Rezaul Karim Tarafder, former member (estate).
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Prosecutor Khandaker Shamim Hossain said the court sentenced all eight convicts to seven years of rigorous imprisonment and fined them Tk 10 lakh each, in default of which they will have to serve one more year of rigorous imprisonment, for criminal misconduct.
The prosecutor added that the court also handed down another seven years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Tk 10 lakh each, in default one extra year in jail, to the eight convicts for criminal breach of trust.
Both sentences will run concurrently, meaning each convict will serve seven years in prison.
Saiful Islam Mithu, bench assistant of the court, said the convicts were on bail but did not appear in court on Tuesday. Consequently, the court cancelled their bail and issued conviction warrants along with arrest warrants against them.
According to the case details, Iqbal Uddin, Foyez, Wahedul, Zafar Ullah, Johurul Huq, and Rezaul Karim abused their power to allocate two 10-katha plots in the names of Rubel and Russel without giving any opportunity to valid applicants.
The Rajuk officials committed these irregularities between 23 August 2001 and 23 October 2014.
Silvia Ferdous, former deputy director of the ACC, filed the case with Motijheel Police Station on 8 February 2017 regarding the incident.
Following an investigation, Mirza Zahidul Alam, former deputy director of the commission, submitted the charge-sheet against the eight individuals in court on 4 September 2018.
The court framed charges against the accused on 26 August 2019 to begin the trial.
During the trial, the court recorded the depositions of nine witnesses. The verdict was delivered on Tuesday following the self-defence statements of the accused and closing arguments in the case.
