Govt cannot withdraw graft cases: HC

The High Court (HC) has ruled that the government cannot withdraw any corruption case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

The government cannot recommend for the withdrawal of such cases either, the court added.

The court has asked the home ministry, law ministry, the ACC, and other relevant agencies to implement the order.

The virtual High Court Bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Mustafizur Rahman came up with this observation while delivering a verdict on a revision petition filed by the ACC involving this issue on Thursday last.

ACC's lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan revealed the information to the media on Sunday.

The HC bench delivered the final verdict against the verdict passed by a trial court in a corruption case.

According to this HC ruling, now the government will no longer be able to interfere in any graft case, he said.

Marking this verdict as a milestone, the ACC lawyer added that this is a warning from the court that nobody could interfere in any graft case.

According to case details, when the Awami League government came into power in 2008 after the military-backed regime, the home ministry then recommended for the withdrawal of many cases including criminal ones.

As per section 494 of Criminal Penal Code, the recommendations were made for the removal of those cases. Following these recommendations, many criminal cases were then withdrawn, but the graft cases were not considered for legal issues.

But during that time, the home ministry recommended for the withdrawal of a corruption case filed by the ACC against a Union Parishad chairman in Sylhet over the embezzlement of government relief tin. Following the recommendation, the trial court also ordered to withdraw the case.

Later, the ACC filed a revision petition with the High Courtin 2016 challenging the trial court order.

Following the revision petition, a HC bench passed the final verdict on 10 December last.

The court in its observation said the ACC is an independent body under the Anti-Corruption Commission Act, 2004.

Therefore, any case filed by ACC cannot be withdrawn and recommendations for case withdrawal by the government will not be entertained, it observed.