Venting its anger at the Anti-Corruption Commission over making an innocent man suffer in jail for three years, the High Court said being an independent organization, if it is influenced the nation will have no option but to take to streets to beg.
"The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is an independent organization and it has to be transparent in its activities, only then a nation would progress steadily. But if it fails to carry out its responsibilities on its own, the nation will start limping towards poverty. There is no doubt that Bangladesh will turn into Pakistan if such situation occurs,” it said.
The HC bench of Justices FRM Nazmul Ahasan and KM Kamrul Kader came up with the observations during an explanation over the imprisonment of a wrong man for the last three years in 33 cases, reports UNB.
Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan stood for the ACC while Advocate Amit Das Gupta argued for the victim, Jahalam.
Four officials -- a representative of the ACC chairman, and Home and Law secretaries each and the plaintiff of the cases -- explained the filing of cases against Jahalam.
It is ACC’s who made mistake
During the hearing session, Khurshid Alam Khan told the court that the prosecution committed mistake by filing the cases against Jahalam.
The court was informed on behalf of the ACC that it filed FIRs following information from Sonali Bank Ltd and Bangladesh Bank.
The name of Jahalam appeared in the charge-sheet and a local chairman identified him, it said.
Also Read- High Court: Release wrongly accused Jahalam immediately
At this stage, the court said, "You made the witness a man who should be the accused in the cases. Have you staged another Joj Miah drama? The Anti-Corruption Commission is an independent agency. The trend of the country's development will be steady if the ACC works independently. Or else, it won't take much time for the country to turn into Pakistan when we'll have to take to the streets whining for alms."
The HC bench also said it does not want to interfere in the ACC activities. "We also want that the ACC works independently. We'd earlier warned you (ACC) in the cases filed over banking scams. Bangladesh is an independent country. But we've noticed in many cases that you sent a notice to a person without any investigation. Later, it's seen that there's no allegation against the person. Then why're you sending notices? Why did an innocent person have to serve in jail for more than two years? The ACC must be transparent."
Jahalam acquitted
Later, the court acquitted Jahalam of all the charges of 26 cases.
Briefing the reporters after the court proceedings, Amit Das Gupta said the court did not pass any order in the rest seven cases as no charge-sheet was pressed in any of them.
The court also ordered the Deputy Inspector General (DIG-Prisons) to immediately release innocent Jahalam from jail.
The matter came to the fore as a Supreme Court lawyer presented a report before the High Court that said Jahalam, a jute mill worker, has been serving in jail in place of real accused Abu Salek in 33 cases of embezzling Tk18 crore from Sonali Bank.
What made Jahalam land in jail?
The entire episode began five years ago when a letter of ACC reached Jahalam's house in Tangail asking him to appear before it at 9:30 am on December 18, 2014 over the embezzlement from Sonali Bank using fake voucher.
The main accused of the case was Abu Salek, a businessman who used fake address to open an account with the bank but the ACC had mistaken his identity as Jahalam.
