Instead of giving a verdict on Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad’s appeal against his three-year sentence for an embezzlement case on the scheduled day, the High Court transferred the plea to the chief justice on Thursday.
The HC bench decided that the plea filed by Ershad should be heard along with two other appeals filed by the government in 1992 against the same verdict.
Ershad’s plea challenged the sentence, whereas the government appeals were for increasing his jail term.
Former military dictator and now special envoy to the prime minister, HM Ershad was convicted by a lower court back in 1992, one year after the case was filed accusing him of embezzling Tk1.91cr when he was in office.
The HC bench of Justice Md Ruhul Quddus sent dockets of all the three appeals to the Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha on Thursday.
The court said the Chief Justice will take necessary steps about the appeals.
Ershad’s appeal challenging the sentence had led to a stay order on the verdict the same year it was given.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) became a party of the case in 2012. Two years later, the appeal hearing had started at the High Court. However the proceedings were stalled and the hearing resumed again after ACC filed a plea seeking its revival on November 30 last year.
