A special court in Dhaka on Tuesday issued arrest warrants against ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy and 27 others in two corruption cases filed over regularities in Rajuk's plot allocation.
Judge of the Metropolitan Senior Special Judge's Court in Dhaka Md Jakir Hossain passed the order, after taking the charge sheets of the cases submitted by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) into cognizance.
The court also fixed April 28 this year for submitting a report on whether the accused have been arrested.
According to the documents of the cases, ACC recently submitted two separate charge sheets against total 53 accused in three cases filed on charges of corruption in Rajuk's plot allocation.
The court hearing was scheduled on Tuesday for taking the charge sheets of the cases into cognizance. Since all the accused, including Sheikh Hasina, are absconding, the court ordered the issuance of arrest warrants against them after taking the charge sheets into its cognizance.
The other accused in the cases are Ministry of Housing and Public Works Administrative Officer Md Saiful Islam Sarkar, Senior Assistant Secretary Purobi Goldar, Additional Secretary Qazi Wasi Uddin, Md Shahid Ullah Khandoker, former Rajuk Chairman's Personal Assistant Md Anisur Rahman Miah, former Rajuk Member Mohammad Khurshid Alam, and Tanmoy Das.
The list also included Mohammad Nasir Uddin, Major (retd) Samsuddin Ahmed Chowdhury, Mazharul Islam, Nayeb Ali Sharif, Md Kamrul Islam, Mohammad Nurul Islam, then Prime Minister's Personal Secretary-1 Mohammad Salahuddin, former State Minister Sharif Ahmed and Md Shofi Ul Haque.
According to ACC officials, one case was filed against Sheikh Hasina and 11 others, mostly housing ministry and RAJUK officials, for abusing power during her tenure as Prime Minister to secure allocation of a valuable diplomatic zone plot in Sector-27 of the Purbachal project.
In the second case, 17 people, including Sheikh Hasina and her son Joy, were accused of influencing public officials to obtain plots in violation of the relevant laws and procedures.
According to the case statement, although Sheikh Hasina, her children, sister, and other close relatives already owned homes or apartments in Dhaka, this information was allegedly concealed in affidavits.
She allegedly misused her authority as the head of government to exert undue influence over officials of the Ministry of Housing and Public Works and RAJUK to obtain the plot.
On April 10, the same court issued arrest warrants against Sheikh Hasina, her daughter Saima Wazed Putul, and 16 others in a graft case concerning plot allocation in Purbachal.
On April 13, arrest warrants were issued against 53 people, including Sheikh Hasina, her sister Sheikh Rehana, Rehana's son Radwan Mujib Siddiq Bobby, and UK MP Tulip Rizwana Siddiq in three other cases involving the alleged illegal acquisition of land in the same housing project.
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