The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday upheld the High Court (HC) orders staying proceedings of five corruption cases against former deputy minister for land Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu and ex-lawmaker Mosaddek Ali Falu.

Keeping the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) petitions against the HC orders stand over, the seven-member full bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice M Ruhul Amin, passed the orders. The apex court asked both the sides of the cases filed by the ACC to take steps to expeditiously dispose of the rules earlier issued by the HC in the cases. The SC also fixed June 9 for hearing of the leave to appeals filed by the anti-graft watchdog against the HC orders.

Upon separate writ petitions by the BNP leaders, the HC earlier stayed proceedings of the cases pending with the special courts, set up in parliament compound. The court also issued rules asking the ACC authorities to explain why proceedings of the cases should not be quashed.

On April 19 last year, a case was filed with Adabor Police Station in the capital against Ruhul Quddus and his wife Sabina Yasmin on charges of amassing wealth illegally and concealing information about the assets in the wealth statement submitted to the ACC.

The ACC in February last year lodged four separate cases with Tejgaon and Ashulia police stations against Mosaddek Ali Falu on charges of misappropriating relief tins when he (Falu) was personal secretary to the then premier Khaleda Zia. The cases were later placed under emergency power rules.