The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

An anti-graft Special Court yesterday sentenced former BNP lawmaker Rashiduzzaman Millat to eight years imprisonment on charges of accumulating wealth illegally and concealing information about it in asset statement.

Judge Mohammad Firoz Alam of the Special Judges' Court-1, set up on the premises of Parliament building complex, also fined him Tk 10 lakh in cash. He will have to serve another year in failure to pay the fine.

Earlier on November 28, Rashiduzzaman Millat, a former lawmaker from Jamalpur district, was sentenced to six years imprisonment on separate charges of tax evasion case, filed by the National Board of Revenue (NBR).

The Special Court yesterday also sentenced Millat's wife Sabera Suraiya and their son Sayeed Bin Jamal to three years each in jail for assisting him in amassing wealth illegally.

It fined the two Tk 1 lakh each. If they fail to pay the amount, they have to serve one more month in prison.

The jail terms to three accused, who are on the run, would become effective the day of their arrest or surrender to the Court of Law.

Deputy Director of the Anticorruption Commission (ACC) Mobara Khanom filed the case against the accused on June 3 last year.

According to the statement of the case, Millat concealed information of owning Tk 4.97 crore wealth through corruption.

He had also amassed asset worth Tk 5.16 crore beyond his known sources of income source, the case alleged.

ACC Assistant Director Mohammad Ibrahim, who investigated the case, pressed charges against the accused in the Court.

The Court indicted Millat on November 5 and deposition started on November 12.

A total of 46 witnesses testified on behalf of the state.

The ACC on February 18 (2007) made a list of some 50 politicians, businessmen and other Government officials as corruption suspects and asked them to submit accounts of their moveable and immovable assets by 72 hours. Rashiduzzaman Millat was one of them.