The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

The High Court (HC) on Monday stayed the trial proceedings of the graft case against former adviser of the caretaker government Justice Mohammad Fazlul Haque for three months.

A two-member vacation bench comprising Justice Mirza Hussain Hyder and Justice Mamnun Rahman issued the order of stay after hearing a writ petition filed by Justice Haque, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, challenging the legality of the case.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) lodged the case against him with Ramna thana on March 13 last on charge of amassing wealth beyond his known sources of income.

The HC also issued a rule asking the authorities concerned to show cause why the case would not be declared illegal and without lawful authority.

Earlier, on September 4, a HC division bench granted three-month ad interim bail to Justice Fazlul Haque in the case.

On September 3, senior special judge of Dhaka Mohammad Azizul Huq issued a warrant for arrest against Justice Fazlul Haque and asked police to submit the compliance report within a week.

The following day, Justice Fazlul Haque obtained bail from the HC. On September 2, the ACC submitted charge sheet against him for amassing illegal wealth of over Taka 1.80 crore and concealing information in his wealth statement submitted to the ACC.

The charge sheet said Justice Fazlul Haque accumulated huge property illegally when he was an adviser of the caretaker government under Professor Dr Iajuddin Ahmed from October 2006 to January 2007.

The ACC served a notice on Justice Fazlul Haque on November 18 last year demanding a statement of his wealth.

He submitted a wealth statement to the ACC on November 26 last year where he mentioned that he owned the assets of about Taka 97 lakh.