Arafat Hasan of DOT
A Dhaka court sentenced Barrister Nazmul Huda to jail yesterday after he surrendered in a bribery case involving Tk 2.4 crore, reports The Daily Star. The former BNP minister surrendered before Dhaka Special Judge Court-2 around 12:30pm, after which the court delivered its sentence. On November 18 of last year, the High Court released the full text of its verdict that was delivered in November in 2017 commuting the jail term of Nazmul Huda to four years’ imprisonment from seven years’ jail sentence in the case.
The HC also ordered Nazmul Huda to surrender to the lower court in 45 days after the lower court receives the HC verdict.
On January 8 of last year, the Supreme Court rejected Huda’s petition regarding his surrender to the trial court and said he must surrender to the lower court in the bribery case.
In the petition, Nazmul Huda prayed to the apex court to allow him to file an appeal with this court against a High Court verdict without surrendering to the lower court.
On March 21, 2007, the Anti-Corruption Commission had filed the case with Dhanmondi Police Station, saying that Huda took Tk 2.40 crore as bribe from a businessman, Mir Zahir Hossain, at different times in exchange for awarding him five government contracts for construction works including road renovations worth about Tk 30 crore.
Nazmul’s wife, Sigma Huda, was also charged in the same case for aiding and abetting her husband in taking the bribe, which was found deposited in an account of Khoborer Ontorale, a weekly newspaper owned by her. Tk 1 crore of the bribe money was later transferred to HSBC bank accounts of their daughters.