Thursday, April 25, 2024
The Appellate Division of Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the acquittal of BNP leader and businessman Mohammad Mosaddek Ali Falu in a case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on charges of embezzling relief tins.
An eight-member bench headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order after rejecting a review petition filed by the ACC against the acquittal.
Barrister Ruhul Quddus Kajal appeared for Falu in court. Advocate AKM Fazlul Huq appeared for the ACC.
Barrister Kajal said the ACC's review petition was rejected, resulting in the cancellation of the case. "There were no further judicial proceedings left in the case. He was ultimately acquitted," he said.
Falu and five others were accused of embezzling relief tin in a case filed during the regime of an army-backed caretaker government in 2007.
According to the case statement, Tk 4 lakh worth of tin was allocated to the poor people during his tenure as a parliamentary member from Dhaka-10 constituency. He was accused of embezzling those relief tins instead of distributing those to underprivileged people.
Falu challenged the legality of the charges in the case and filed a petition with the High Court to quash the case. The HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim passed the order acquitting him of all the charges on March 7, 2018.
Later, the ACC filed a leave-to-appeal petition with the Appellate Division against the verdict. On June 2, 2021, the Appellate Division upheld the High Court's verdict quashing the case of embezzlement of relief tins against Falu.
In response, the anti-graft body filed an appeal with the Appellate Division seeking review of the verdict, which was dismissed today.
