Iqbal Hasan Mahmood Tuku

The Supreme Court today scrapped a High Court verdict that acquitted former BNP state minister Iqbal Hasan Mahmood Tuku in a corruption case.

A five-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain also directed the High Court to dispose of an appeal filed by Tuku challenging a lower court verdict that had sentenced him to nine years' imprisonment in the case.

The apex court today passed the order after hearing a leave to appeal petition filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) challenging the HC verdict.

The ground on which the SC passed the order could not be known as its full text was not released yet.

However, the ACC's counsel Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star that the Supreme Court came up with the order as the HC in his verdict did not review the statements made by the witnesses before the lower court in the case.  

The ACC filed the case against Tuku with Mohammadpur Police Station on March 21, 2007 on charges of amassing illegal wealth worth Tk 2.57 crore and concealing information about it.

A Special Judges Court-5 of Dhaka on November 15, 2007 jailed Tuku for nine years as the corruption charges were proved against him.

Tuku filed an appeal with the HC in December, 2007 challenging the lower court verdict.

The HC on June 16, 2011 acquitted Tuku of the corruption charges.

On December 4, 2011, the ACC filed the leave to appeal petition with the apex court against the HC verdict.