A Dhaka Court on Thursday fixed May 26 as the next date for the hearing and cross-examinationof witnesses in the money laundering case against vice chairman of BNP Tarique Rahman and Gias Uddin-Al-Mamun.
Acting Judge of Dhaka’s Special Judge’s Court-3, Md Mozammel Haque fixed the date after recording the 10th witness Bivuti Bhushan Sarker, executive officer of Sonali Bank, Dhaka Cantonment branch.
Mamun’s defence lawyer Barrister Faqrul Islam cross-examined the prosecution witness Bivuti, who started his deposition on April 16.
Faqrul Islam objected to 22 pages of photocopy paperwork, which Bivuti submitted to the court, including pay orders to a Singapore bank account belonging to Tarique and Mamun.
In response, the court instructed the prosecution and the witness to avail the original copies of the paperwork.
The prosecution’s Mosharraf Hossain Kajal helped the witness with his deposition.
During the proceedings, one of the accused, Mamun was produced before the court under special security arrangement due to a hartal.
According to the case details, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case against Tarique and Mamun with Dhaka Cantonment police station on October 26, 2009, accusing them of “siphoning off Tk204.1m to Singapore” between 2003 and 2007.
The fund was allegedly taken by Mamun as bribes from Khadiza Islam, director of Nirman Construction Ltd, for helping it bag the contract for installing an 80MW power plant at Tongi.
The ACC on July 6, 2010 submitted the charge sheetin the case to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court of Dhaka after investigation.
On August 8 last year, the court indicted Tarique and Mamun under the Money Laundering Act 2002 and issued an arrest warrant against Tarique.
Mamun later allegedly deposited the money at the Singapore City Bank’s Capital Street branch.
