No one, including lawmakers and ministers, is above the law: High Court

The High Court today warned that corrupt persons will not be spared, no matter how powerful they are.

Nobody, including lawmakers and ministers, is above the law, the HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Mohi Uddin Shamim also said.

The HC bench came up with the warning during hearing a petition filed by Shariful Islam Jinnah, Jatiya Party lawmaker from Bogura-2, seeking anticipatory bail in a corruption case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission against him for allegedly amassing wealth illegally and concealing wealth information.

MP Shariful's lawyer Sheikh Sirajul Islam told the HC bench that his client is a freedom fighter, now aged 73, and the case was filed against him in order to tarnish his image.

In response, the HC bench said it is unlikely that a lawmaker's dignity will be damaged if a case is filed against him.

If the accused lawmaker would surrender to the lower court and seek bail from that court, it would instead enhance his dignity and the people would have an example before them, the HC bench also said.

The bench, however, granted anticipatory bail to Shariful Islam Jinnah for three weeks in the corruption case, and ordered him to surrender to the trial court concerned within three weeks in connection with the corruption case.

Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin Manik told The Daily Star that the HC bench granted anticipatory bail to MP Shariful for three weeks following his bail petition in which he said that he is a regular taxpayer and the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has never questioned his tax affairs.

The accused appeared before the HC bench during the hearing today.

ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan opposed the bail petition.

The ACC filed the case with its Dhaka Integrated District Office-1 on February 2 against MP Shariful for submitting a false asset statement of Tk 69 lakh and failing to submit the income source of Tk 1.6 crore.