Corruption Charges: 3,300 cases await court disposal

The Anti-Corruption Commission is grappling with case backlogs as over 3,300 remain pending in various courts across the country.

The number is rising as fresh cases are being filed with the anti-graft watchdog every month, but the rate of disposal is dismally low with only 341 cases disposed of last year, according to the organisation's January report.

Politicians, businesspeople, current and former government officials and their family members are the majority of the accused in the cases filed on various charges, including bribery, corruption, embezzlement of public funds, irregularities in property acquisition, and tax evasion.

ACC officials said after filing of the cases, the accused turn up at the courts, including the High Court, and file writ petitions.

The HC issues stay orders in many cases, halting the proceedings. As a result, the case backlog continues to pile up, they said.

Since the ACC's inception in 2004, as many as 2,994 cases filed by the commission are pending in various courts till December last year, according to the report, signed by Md Mostafizur Rahman, deputy director prosecution (general) of ACC.

Of the cases, 2,745 are under trial while 249 were stayed by the HC.

Last year, 303 ACC cases and 38 cases of the now-defunct Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) were disposed of. Some 190 accused were sentenced along with fines while 93 were acquitted in those cases.

Dhaka has the highest number of cases, 878, pending in the courts, while 2,116 cases are pending in the courts outside Dhaka.

Meanwhile, 359 cases of the ACB are still awaiting disposal in different courts with proceedings of 177 cases stayed by the HC and 182 cases under trial.

Thirty-eight of the cases were disposed of where five individuals got punishment and 25 got acquittals.

Md Jahurul Haque, commissioner of the ACC, said once a case is filed, it goes to the court's jurisdiction and the commission has nothing to do there.

"The ACC is sincerely making efforts to present evidence and information to the court in a timely manner. However, in comparison to the other cases, the judgement of cases of ACC are fast," he said.

Attorney General AM Amin Uddin said the HC has a specific bench to deal with the cases of the ACC.

"The commission has a panel of lawyers. They handle these cases. But if they ask me to handle these cases, I can help. They made such requests in several cases and I also tried to solve them quickly."

ACC's lawyer Mosharraf Hossen Kajol said witnesses play a big role in non-completion of the cases.

"If the witness does not come, the case gets delayed."

"We face a big problem of witnesses [turning up in court] in the cases filed during the tenure of the Anti-Corruption Bureau," Kajol said.