SC scraps Sylhet mayor Ariful’s acquittal

The Supreme Court today scrapped a High Court verdict that acquitted suspended mayor of Sylhet City Corporation Ariful Haque Chowdhury in a corruption case.

The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case with Sylhet Police Station on September 9, 2007 against Ariful on charge of amassing wealth worth over Tk 2.63 crore through corruption and concealing information about it.

A special judge’s court in Sylhet on June 23, 2008 sentenced Ariful to 10 years’ imprisonment in the case.

Following an appeal filed by Ariful, the HC on April 9, 2013 acquitted him of the corruption charges.

Today, the Appellate Division of the SC also asked the HC to hold further hearing and dispose of the appeal filed by Ariful, who is now in jail in former finance minister SASM Kibria murder case, challenging the lower court judgment against him.

A three-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana passed the order after hearing the leave-to-appeal petition filed by the ACC challenging the HC verdict.

ACC's counsel Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star that the SC came up with the order after accepting his arguments that the HC verdict was not correct, since it did not consider the corruption allegations brought against Ariful and relevant evidence in the case.     

AM Aminuddin appeared for Ariful.