Setting a very rare example, the High Court yesterday sent a former government official from court straight to jail on contempt charges.
The HC sentenced SOM Kalimullah, former managing director of the state-owned Bangladesh Telecommunication Company Limited (BTCL), to four months simple imprisonment after finding him guilty of contempt on the basis of an arbitration application.
According to the court order, he had committed contempt “by refusing to comply with this court’s order” in connection with refunding a non-government company’s security money.
The immediate past BTCL managing director was also fined Tk1 lakh and another month of jail in case he fails to pay it.
Immediately after passing the order, the HC bench comprising Justice Md Rezaul Hasan sent Kalimullah, who appeared before the court, to the registrar of the Supreme Court to be handed over to law enforcers.
The court also acquitted Shah Farid Uddin, a deputy director of BTCL, and Helal Ahmed, manager of IFIC Bank’s stock exchange branch, of the same charges.
SM Kuddus Zaman, acting registrar of the apex court, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We handed him [Kalimullah] over to the Shahbagh police along with a directive to send him to prison.”
Senior Supreme Court practitioner Monjil Morshed, also an amicus curiae in the case, told the Dhaka Tribune: “There have been many incidents in the past where the court had punished someone and they had been sent to jail. But this is the first time that anyone present at the court during the time of the order was sent directly to jail.”
He also remembers that two years ago, a court sent two bureaucrats to jail on contempt charges but they were not present at the time the order was passed.
Aneek R Haque, who filed the arbitration application, also said it was a very rare incident.
Aneek said his client Oxinnel Services Private Limited had deposited Tk1.40 crore as security deposit to a branch of the IFIC Bank in favour of the BTCL in 2009 to operate as an international telephone call carrier company.
The dispute began in 2012. BTCL demanded around TK68 lakh from Oxinnel as various charges. Oxinnel asked BTCL to reduce the amount from the security deposit and pay it back the balance.
After BTCL had refused to pay the money back, Oxinnel filed the arbitration application with the High Court in June 2013. A few days later, the court issued a notice for the state-owned company seeking a response on whether or not the money would be refunded. But BTCL did not respond.
The next month, the HC issued an order to the BTCL to refund Tk72 lakh to Oxinnel. But BTCL did not respond to this order either.
In November 2013, BTCL sent a letter to the IFIC Bank saying it had an objection about releasing the money to Oxinnel. Following a petition from Oxinnel, the HC in January this year issued a rule against Kalim Ullah, Farid Uddin and Helal Ahmed asking them why contempt charges should not be brought against them.
In April this year, BTCL finally responded to that court ruling and sought an unconditional apology, soon after which, the court appointed five amici curiae to decide whether BTCL was eligible for pardon.
Aneek said: “The amici curiae then opined that if the court accepted the unconditional apology, it would hurt the court’s dignity.”
Yesterday’s order was a continuation of that process.