The High Court today upheld orders of a lower court that asked Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to freeze bank accounts and seize documents of properties of former lawmaker AKMA Awal and his wife in two corruption cases.

The bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Sardar Md Rashed Jahangir, summarily rejected two separate appeals filed by Awal and his wife Laila Parvin challenging orders of a Dhaka court, on the ground that they were much late in filing the appeals.

The HC bench, however, asked AKMA Awal, who was lawmaker from Pirojpur, and Laila to move petitions properly under Section 561 (A) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) for challenging the subordinate court orders.

Anti-Corruption Commission's lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star that Awal and Laila were supposed to file the appeals with the HC in 30 days after the lower court passed the order as per the provision of relevant law.

The lower court delivered the orders on January 17 this year but the accused filed the appeals after 77 days and therefore, their appeals are not acceptable, he said.

The lower court orders will remain upheld until further order, Khurshid Alam Khan added.

Sheikh Awsafur Rahman, the lawyer for Awal and Parvin, said that the lower court delivered the orders on January 17, but its judge signed the copy of the order on March 3.

He said he will move petitions under Section 561 (A) of the CrPC on behalf of his clients before HC bench for scrapping the lower court orders as the bench asked him to do so.

Judge KM Emrul Kayesh of the Senior Special Judge's Court of Dhaka on January 17 ordered the ACC to freeze 18 bank accounts and seize documents of 40 scheduled immovable properties of Awal and his wife in the two graft cases.