SC affirms HC verdict against Osman Gani

The Supreme Court yesterday affirmed the High Court verdict that upheld a lower court judgement convicting and sentencing former chief conservator of forest Osman Gani to 12 years' imprisonment in a corruption case.

A three-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Justice Muhammad Imman Ali passed the order, dismissing an appeal filed by Osman Gani challenging the High Court verdict in the case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

ACC lawyer Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star that Osman Gani has already got released from jail after serving the 12 years' jail sentence.

Therefore, he needs not to go to jail following the SC order, he said. 

The HC on December 15, 2015 upheld the lower court verdict that convicted and sentenced Osman Gani to 12 years' imprisonment for amassing illegal wealth and concealing information in his wealth statement submitted to the ACC.

A team of joint forces arrested Osman from his Uttara residence in the city on May 29, 2007, and seized Tk 1 crore from his house.

On June 5, 2008, Judge AKM Arifur Rahman of the Special Court-10 convicted Osman and sentenced him to 12 years in jail, for amassing wealth worth Tk 4.97 crore illegally.

The court also handed down three years' imprisonment to Gani's fugitive wife Mohsenara Gani for aiding and abetting her husband.

Gani and his wife were fined Tk 10 lakh and Tk 100,000 respectively.