The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has quashed a High court order that relieved Housing and Public Works Minister Eng Mosharraf Hossain from a corruption case launched against him eight years ago.
A four-member bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha made the order on Thursday in reply to a leave-to-appeal submitted by the Anti-Corruption Commission in this regard.
Legal barrier to run investigation into the allegation raised against the minister disappeared with the verdict. Barrister Tanjibul Alam stood for Awami League Presidium Member Eng Mosharraf while ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan for the country's corruption watchdog.
Apart from the minister, former AL lawmaker from Fatikchhari Rafiqul Anwar and his brother Fakhrul Anwar, director of Hotel Golden Inn Ltd, were made accused in the lawsuit filed with Double Mooring police station in Chittagong city on November 22, 2007 by ACC assistant director Jahangir Alam.
According to the case statement, Eng Mosharraf got the onus of the same ministry during the 1996-2001 AL tenure.
The minister had given a lease advice for a 1.88-Bigha parking space in Agrabad area to build the three-star hotel. The value of the land was estimated at Tk1.69 crore and it was later registered for Messers Sanmar Hotel Ltd by violating the lease act.
The Sanmar hotel authorities paid above Tk2.92 crore more than the real value. In 2012, a HC bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Farid Ahmed issued a rule dismissing the case and the ACC filed the appeal against the decision.
