CHATTOGRAM, Jul 27: Former officer-in-charge (OC) of Teknaf police station Pradip Kumar Das and his spouse Chumki Karon have been awarded 20 years and 21 years in jail for amassing wealth illegally.
The Pradeep-Chumki couple are also fined Tk 4.101 crore and Tk 4.111 crore.
A Chattogram court pronounced the verdict on a corruption case, filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission, on Wednesday morning.
It also gave the order to confiscate their illegally-acquired wealth.
Chattogram Divisional Special Judge Court Judge Munshi Abdul Majeed passed the verdict.
On July 17, the court set July 27 as the date for pronouncing the judgment.
Under section 26 (2) of the ACC Act-2004, court sources say, Chumki was given one-year imprisonment and fined Tk 0.1 million, in default of which she will serve one more month.
Under section 27 (1), both Pradeep and Chumki were sentenced to eight years in jail and a fine of Tk 1.0 million each, in default of which they will serve six more months.
Each convict was sentenced to 10 years and a fine of Tk 40 million under sections 4 (2) and 4 (3) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act-2012.
They were also awarded two years in jail and fined Tk 10,000, in default of which they will serve two more months under section 5 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act-1947.
On 23 August 2020, ACC Chittagong Integrated District Office-02 assistant director Md Riaz Uddin filed a case against OC Pradeep and his wife.
In this case, they were accused of acquiring assets worth Tk 3,955,635, concealing information about their assets and money laundering.
On 28 July 2021, plaintiff and investigating officer Riaz Uddin submitted a charge sheet to the court.
On September 01, the court accepted the charge sheet after the hearing in the presence of OC Pradeep.
The recoding of testimonies began on February 17 this year in the absence of Chumki. She surrendered to the court at the last stage of the recording.
OC Pradip has been behind bars as he was given death penalty in another case for shooting and killing Maj Sinha at Shamlapur Marine Drive Check Post in Teknaf on the night of 31 July 2020.
nazim07@yahoo.com