The Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Court on Tuesday ordered ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina and 11 others to appear before the court in connection with a case over irregularities in plot allocations in the Purbachal New Town Project.
The court in a separate order also asked the Anti-Corruption Commission to seize 200 acres of land owned by S Alam Group chairman Mohammad Saiful Alam, his family members, and their beneficiaries over graft allegations.
Judge Md Jakir Hossain of the court ordered Hasina and 11 others to appear before it, responding to an ACC petition as the police submitted a report on previously issued arrest warrants against them.
The court also ordered to publish the order in the form of a public gazette notice.
The other accused in the case are former housing and public works affairs state minister Sharif Ahmed, the ministry鈥檚 former senior assistant secretary Purabi Goldar, former RAJUK chairman Anisur Rahman Mia, former RAJUK members Shafiul Haque, Md Khurshid Alam, Md Nasir Uddin, Shamsuddin Ahmed Chowdhury, deputy director Nayeb Ali Sharif, the ministry鈥檚 administrative official Saiful Islam Sarkar, and the ministry鈥檚 former secretaries Kazi Wasi Uddin and Shahid Ullah Khondaker.
ACC public prosecutor Mir Ahmed Ali Salam said that the court also set July 1 as the date of the next hearing in the case.
On March 25, the ACC submitted six charge sheets against Hasina and others in six cases. Hasina is a common accused in the cases.
The ACC filed the cases with its Dhaka Integrated District Office in January.
The same court on Tuesday also ordered to seize 200 acres of land owned by S Alam Group chairman Saiful Alam, his family members, and their beneficiaries.
The ACC petition said that the commission had already formed a joint probe team and is investigating the allegations of money laundering against Saiful Alam and people related to him.
鈥楾hey embezzled a huge amount of money after taking loans from different banks illegally and amassed huge wealth in home and abroad. They are trying to hand over the properties,鈥� it said.
On April 27, the court ordered the ACC to seize 563.57 acres of land worth Tk 1001.76 crore owned by S Alam Group and its entities.
On April 23, the court also ordered the ACC to seize 159.15 acres of land worth Tk 407 crore owned by them.
聽On April 9, the court ordered the ACC to seize 7,919.52 kathas of land worth Tk 325.19 crore of the group.
On January 30, the court ordered the ACC to seize 58 acres of land worth Tk 368 crore belonging to Saiful Alam and his family members.
On February 12, the court ordered the ACC to freeze 437.85 crore shares of 42 companies belonging to S Alam and his family. The value of the shares is around Tk 5,100 crore.
On January 16, the court ordered the freezing of more than 32.1 crore shares worth Tk 350 crore in 24 companies owned by S Alam and his family members.
The court on January 14 ordered the ACC to seize immovable properties worth Tk 200 crore and the freezing of 87 bank accounts of S Alam, his wife Farzana Parveen, and 16 of his family members.
Earlier, the ACC started an inquiry against the S Alam group chairman over the allegations of amassing illegal wealth and laundering $1 billion to Singapore and several other countries.
The court on Tuesday also imposed a travel ban on three people from Chattogram for abetting former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury in his financial crimes including money laundering.
The three people, who have been barred from leaving the country, are Utpal Paul, Abdul Aziz and Syed Kamruzzaman.
