The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Two sons of two top-ranking leaders of BNP were sentenced to imprisonment in separate cases yesterday.

Former BNP lawmaker M Naser Rahman, son of pro-reformist BNP leader and former finance minister M Saifur Rahman, was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment for concealing wealth information submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), while Khondaker Akhter Hamid Paban, son of Khaleda-appointed BNP Secretary General Khondaker Delwar Hossain, was sentenced to 17 years' rigorous imprisonment for possessing illegal arms and bullets.

A special anti-graft court sentenced detained Naser Rahman to 13 years jail term for concealing wealth information submitted to the ACC.

Khondker Kamaluzzaman, judge of Special Court-9, set-up on the Sangsad Bhaban premises, also fined him Tk five lakh. If Naser failed to pay the amount, he will have to serve another year more behind bars, the court ruling said.

The punishment will be effective from the date of his arrest.

The court also ordered the official concerned to confiscate his wealth worth over Tk 1 crore 79 lakh.

On May 27, 2007, ACC Deputy Director Moniruzzaman Khan filed the case against Naser and his wife Rezina Rahman with Gulshan Police Station.

In the case statement, the complainant said that Naser and his wife did not mention properties worth Tk 4.90 crore in their wealth statements that they had submitted to the ACC.

The case was filed under section 26(2) and 27 (1) of the ACC Act 2004, section 15 of the Emergency Power Rules 2007 and section 109 of the Penal Code.

Rezina's judgment was not delivered as her case was pending in the High Court.

On February 4 last year, the joint forces arrested Naser at his Banani residence in the capital.

On the other hand, a Dhaka court yesterday sentenced Khondaker Akhter Hamid Paban and four others to 17 years' rigorous imprisonment each for possessing illegal arms and bullets.

Judge Mohammad Shafiul Azam of the Metropolitan Special Tribunal-12 delivered the judgment.

Other convicts are Anwar Hossain, Masud Ali Apu, Delwar Hossain Ratan and Paban's cousin Nahid alias Mota Nahid. Of them, Nahid is on the run after receiving bail from the court.

On October 29 last year, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested Paban after raiding a Japan Garden City apartment in city's Mohammadpur area following information gathered from three of his associates arrested earlier.

Later, RAB seized two illegal foreign made firearms -- a pistol and a revolver -- along with nine bullets and a motorbike from Dhaka Flood Protection Embankment at Panchabati near Pallabi.

Later, a case was filed with Pallabi Police Station in this connection.