A Dhaka court today sentenced a former superintendent engineer of Roads and Highways Department (RHD) to seven years rigorous imprisonment for acquiring Tk 3.1 crore illegally beyond of his source of income.

Judge Md Jahurul Haque of the Senior Special Judges' Court of Dhaka handed down the sentence in presence of the convict Abdul Malek, who retired from RHD in 2006.

The court also fined him Tk 1 lakh, in default of which he will have to suffer one year more in jail.

Assistant Director of Anti-Corruption Commission SMM Akter Hamid Bhuiyan filed the case against Malek and his wife Ambia Khatun with Dhanmondi Police Station on June 5, 2006.

The court, however, acquitted Khatun saying the charge pressed against her was not proved.

The court ordered of confiscation of Malek's five-storey building at Pallabi and five flats in Dhanmondi and Gulshan in the capital in favour of the government along with Tk 3.1 crore which he earned illegally.

The court canceled Malek's bail and ordered him sent to jail.

According to the case statement, the couple in connivance with each other acquired the illegal wealth of Tk 3.1 crore which was deposited to Standard Chartered Bank.

He acquired the wealth from 1974 to 2006 during his job tenure, stated the charges pressed against the couple on June 15, 2011.