HC asks jail authorities to free Jaha Alam from jail

The High Court today directed the jail authorities to immediately release Jaha Alam who was in jail for the last three years instead of the real accused in 26 corruption cases.

The High Court bench of Justice FRM Nazmul Ahasan and Justice KM Kamrul Kader came up with the order while hearing a rule over the legality of Jaha Alam’s suffering in jail.

The court passed the order after the director general of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), plaintiff of the cases and two other government officials appeared before it.

ACC lawyer Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan told the court that the commission has done a mistake by accusing Jaha Alam in the cases. The commission has already submitted an application to the lower court concerned to exonerate Jaha Alam from the cases, he said.

The court fixed February 6 for further hearing on the rule.

HOW JAHA ALAM LANDED IN JAIL

Between 2010 and 2011, Abu Salek, a businessman, misappropriated about Tk 18 crore from Sonali Bank's Cantonment branch. Salek used a fake address to open an account with the bank, the ACC said.

Salek also had an account in another private bank, ACC sources said.

In 2012, the anti-graft watchdog filed the 33 cases over the misappropriation, and Salek was made accused in most of them.

During investigation, the commission asked the banks' officials to identify and trace Salek.

The officials informed the ACC that the address provided by Salek in his bank documents was in Tangail's Nagarpur, ACC sources said.

The commission then summoned Salek to its office where the bank officials, including the account's introducers, were present.

However, the man who appeared before the ACC claimed that the authorities concerned were mistaken and his name was Jaha Alam, not Abu Salek.

“To ascertain further, we sent the photo that Salek used in the bank's Know-Your-Client form to Nagarpur's Union Parishad chairman, who identified him as Jaha Alam,” said an investigation officer preferring anonymity.

Later, the ACC placed a charge-sheet before the court identifying him as Abu Salek alias Jaha Alam.

In 2016, Alam was arrested by police in connection with most of the cases in which Salek was accused.

Source: thedailystar