HC questions acceptance of charges against Moudud

BNP standing committee member Moudud Ahmed. Star file photo

The High Court today questioned the legality of a lower court order that accepted charges against former BNP minister Moudud Ahmed in a land related case.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case with Gulshan Police Station on December 17, 2013 against Moudud and his brother Monjur Ahmed on charge of grabbing government land worth over Tk 300 crore in Gulshan, Dhaka.

On September 14 last year, a Dhaka court accepted the charges against the duo for trial.

At today’s hearing, the HC issued a rule upon the ACC and government to explain in two weeks as to why the lower court order should not be declared illegal.

The court also fixed May 21 for holding hearing on the rule. 

The HC bench of Justice Md Moinul Islam Chowdhury and Justice JBM Hassan passed the order after hearing a revision petition filed by Moudud in November last year challenging the lower court order. 

Moudud told the HC that the case filed against him was false and fabricated and it was filed to harass him politically.

The lower court has illegally taken the charges against him into cognisance, he added.

ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan opposed the petition of the BNP leader.