The High Court on Sunday asked the Anti-Corruption Commission chairman to submit to it the 476 files of corruption suspects who were cleared of the charges in the five months preceding Iqbal Mahmood’s retirement as the ACC chairman.
The bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat issued the directive during a hearing of a suo motu rule it issued on March 8, 2022 asking the ACC chief to explain his position over an allegation that the commission had cleared many big fishes before Iqbal Mahmood’s tenure as chairman ended.
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The allegation was published in a report carried by the Daily Inqilab on March 14, 2021.
Lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan, appearing for the ACC, told the court on Sunday that the commission had cleared the 476 suspects following the due process in accordance with the ACC law.
He also said that the ACC chair alone could not relieve or decide corrupt suspects as accused as the anti-graft body had two other commissioners.
According to the Inqilab report, the commission relieved Housing and Research Institute director general Ashraful Alam and his wife from inquiry proceedings in exchange for a huge amount of money just before Iqbal Mahmood retired as chairman.
The commission termed the report as ‘baseless’ and demanded punishment for the daily’s editor, publisher and journalist concerned for the report.
The commission also demanded an order from the court to ask the journalist to disclose to it the source of the news and submit to it the documents in support of the report.
The High Court in a verdict on June 21, 2022 observed that laws gave protection to the journalists in not disclosing the sources of information published or broadcast in the media.
