HC sends records to CJ in case against Ershad

The High Court yesterday sent all the records of a 25-year-old corruption case against former president HM Ershad to chief justice for a decision.

The bench of Justice Md Ruhul Quddus also refrained from delivering verdict on an appeal filed by Ershad against a lower court judgement that jailed him for three years in the case.

On March 9, the bench concluded hearing on the appeal of Ershad and fixed yesterday for delivering verdict on it.

Yesterday, the HC bench came up with the decision citing the documents that two appeals filed by the then government in 1992 praying for enhancing the sentence of Ershad in this case are pending with the HC, Anti-Corruption Commission's lawyer Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star.

He said all the three appeals filed by the government and Ershad relating to the corruption case will now be sent to the chief justice.

After receiving the records, Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha may assign the HC to hold hearing on all the three appeals simultaneously, Advocate Khurshid said.

He said it might not take a long time to hear and dispose of the three appeals, as the HC has already heard arguments on the appeal of Ershad and was set to deliver a verdict on it yesterday.

The then Bureau of Anti-Corruption (Bac), which became defunct after formation of the ACC in 2004, had filed the case against Ershad with Cantonment Police Station in 1992 on the charge of misappropriating Tk 1.91 crore by misusing powers at different times when he was the president from December 11, 1983 to December 6, 1990.

On February 3, 1992, a Dhaka court convicted Ershad, also chairman of the Jatiya Party, and sentenced him to three years' imprisonment.

Ershad the same year had filed an appeal with the HC, challenging the lower court judgment. In the appeal, Ershad prayed to the HC to acquit him of the corruption charge.

Following the appeal, the HC stayed the lower court verdict, Advocate Khurshid said, adding that the ACC on February 26 in 2012 became a party of the case under the HC's permission, as the Bac was not functional. The lawyer said Ershad had obtained bail from the HC in the case, as he served three years' in jail in the case.