Last update on: Mon Aug 21, 2023 01:52 AM
Supreme Court lawyer Barrister Syed Sayedul Haque Suman today submitted two petitions — one for becoming a party to a probe ordered by the High Court and the other seeking a directive to bar S Alam’s owner and his wife from leaving the country.
The petitions were filed with the High Court and the attorney general’s office.
In the petition submitted to the AG office, Barrister Suman said there is a prima-facie case against S Alam Group for laundering money, corruption and forgery and therefore, an order from the HC is necessary directing its owners Mohammad Saiful Alam and his wife Farzana Parveen not to leave Bangladesh until the end of the inquiry ordered by this court on August 6.
On the same day (August 6), Barrister Suman moved a prayer before the High Court with a report in The Daily Star headlined “S Alam’s Aladdin’s lamp” published on August 4, for a suo-muto (voluntary) rule and probe order.
The HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat Lizu will hold a hearing tomorrow on the petition filed seeking to become an added party to the suo-muto rule and probe order, lawyer Suman told The Daily Star.
He said he has served the attorney general’s office the copy of another petition for imposing restrictions on the S ALam owner and his wife from leaving Bangladesh and this petition will be submitted to the HC if this court allows him to become a party in the case.
Last week, S Alam Group submitted two petitions with the HC and the attorney general’s office, one seeking to become a party to a probe ordered by the HC, and the other seeking a retraction of the probe and a gag order on media.
The same HC bench may hold hearing on S Alam Group’s petition for becoming party next week, Suman told this correspondent.
The bench on August 6 issued the suo-muto rule directing the inquiry into allegations that Saiful Alam and his wife are running offshore businesses without Bangladesh Bank’s permission.
on August 13, the same bench declined to entertain a verbal prayer by S Alam Group’s lawyer Barrister Ajmalul Hossain for recalling its August 6 order in relation to The Daily Star report, that found S Alam has built at least about $1 billion business empire in Singapore. The Daily Star investigation also found S Alam never took permission from Bangladesh Bank to invest or transfer any funds abroad.
The verbal petition of August 13 came just three days after S Alam served a legal notice on the government and four national dailies, including The Daily Star, essentially demanding that these newspapers publish no news on him or his business operations.
In a suo moto rule on August 6, the bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam and Justice Khizir Hayat ordered the ACC, Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) and Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police to investigate the allegations disclosed in the report.
The HC asked the Bangladesh Bank governor and head of BFIU to come up with a report clarifying whether any permission and approval from Bangladesh Bank has been given to S Alam Group to take the “money in question” to the foreign countries from Bangladesh.
The court also asked The Daily Star editor to submit an affidavit with regard to the authenticity of its report published on August 4 to this court by October 10 and fixed the same date for passing further order on this issue.
