Appellate Div stays HC verdict acquitting land official

High Court

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court today stayed till July 1 the High Court verdict that acquitted former land ministry official Md Kutub Uddin Ahmed from a corruption case in which he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment.

Chamber judge of the Appellate Division of the apex court Justice M Enayetur Rahim passed the order following a petition filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) challenging the High Court verdict.

The apex court judge fixed July 1 for further hearing on the petition.

Kutub Uddin cannot get released from jail following the Appellate Division Chamber Judge's order, Advocate Titus Hillol Rema, a lawyer for the ACC, told the media.

Attorney General AM Amin Uddin appeared for the state while senior lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan argued for the ACC and senior lawyers M Yusuf Hossain Humayun and Shah Monjurul Hoque stood for Kutub Uddin during the hearing on Sunday.

On May 29, the High Court scrapped a lower court verdict that sentenced the land ministry’s former Administrative Officer Kutub Uddin to five years’ imprisonment in the graft case.

The High Court bench also acquitted him from the charges of the case, observing that the trial court convicted and sentenced him on “surmise conjecture” and failed to apply judicial mind in delivering its verdict.

A special court of Dhaka on February 14 of 2022, convicted Kutub Uddin and sentenced him to five years imprisonment in the case filed on charge of influencing the allocation of a 10-katha plot in Gulshan area in the names of some of his relatives, including his father-in-law, using fake documents. - Special Correspondent