Money laundering: SC order on plea of BNP leader Morshed Khan tomorrow

The Supreme Court will deliver an order tomorrow on the appeal filed challenging a High Court verdict that permitted the Anti-Corruption Commission to further investigate the money laundering case against former foreign minister M Morshed Khan, his wife and their son.

The apex court also asked ACC lawyer Advocate KhurshidAlam Khan to produce the commission’s (ACC) case documents to it before passing the order tomorrow.

The four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain fixed the date and passed the order after hearing a leave-to-appeal petition filed byformer BNP lawmaker Morshed Khan, his wife Nasrin Khan and their son Faisal Morshed Khan challenging the HC verdict. 

Following a revision petition filed by the ACC, the HC on November 9, 2016 permitted the ACC to further investigate the money laundering case against them.

The same day (November 9, 2016), the HC also extended till March 31, 2017 its earlier order of freezing the bank accounts of Morshed, his wife and son with the Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong and directed them to surrender before a court in six weeks in a money laundering case.

Following a petition filed by Morshed, his wife and son, the Appellate Division of the SC later on stayed the HC order.

On January 19 last year, they filed the leave-to-appeal petition with the SC against the HC verdict.

AdvocateKhurshidAlam Khan told The Daily Star that the ACCfiled the money laundering case against Morshed, Nasrin and Faisal in 2013 and submitted a final report to the lower court in July, 2015 saying that they did not launder money.

The lower court on April 15, 2016 accepted the final report and exempted the three from the money laundering charge.

The Hong Kong police, who froze their bank accounts in 2008 under an administrative order, have meanwhile sent a letter to the ACC saying they would open the accounts if there were no legal steps against them in connection with the case, the ACC lawyer said.

The ACC then submitted two petitions to a Dhaka court to revive the case and seek permission to reinvestigate the case.

The Dhaka court on June 2, 2016 rejected the petitions, he said, adding that the commission on June 5, 2016 moved the revision petition before the HC challenging the lower court orders.

The HC on June 5, 2016 asked the authorities concerned to freeze the bank accounts of Morshed, his wife and their son with the Hong Kong bank and also asked them to restrain from transferring 16 million Hong Kong dollars from the bank till further orders, he added.

Barrister Rokanuddin Mahmud and Advocate Ahsanul Karim appeared for Morshed Khan and his wife and son.