Sylhet mayor Ariful Haque Chowdhury and Rajshahi Mayor Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul, both BNP-backed representatives, have been suspended from their posts, just after they resumed office on Sunday morning.
Suspension letters were issued against them by the Local Government and Rural Development Ministry through fax.
The ‘City Corporation Act’ related affairs additional secretary of the ministry, Md Mahmudul Alam issued the letters.
“The complete chargesheet of the special tribunal case-4/2009 against Ariful Haque Chowdhury has been accepted in court on March 22. Therefore, according to judicial power of sub-section 12 of the Local Government Law 2009, the Sylhet City Corporation Mayor Ariful Haque Chowdhury has been suspended temporarily from his office,” the letter from the ministry cited.
The letter issued against Bulbul said that he has been suspended as the Rajshashi Metropolitan Special Tribunal-1 has accepted a chargesheet against him. The case was filed against him on February 8, 2015 with the city’s Boalia police station.
The SCC mayor had resumed office on Sunday 11am after almost 27 months of being in jail. The mayor, along with BNP-backed councilors, leaders and activists of the party; went to the temporary corporation office in city’s Topkhana area at 10am on Sunday.
The SCC employees also greeted the mayor in the office in the morning.
“After taking office as mayor, I was running development works in the city, but I was jailed for two years over fabricated cases. I want to fulfill my electoral pledge, now that I have resumed office. I want to take opinions from all sectors to realize development works,” the mayor had said while talking to reporters on Sunday morning.
Ariful was elected SCC mayor on June 15, 2013. On December 30, 2014, he had surrendered before a Habiganj court as he was an accused in the Finance Minister Shah AMS Kibria murder case, and was jailed.
The LGRD Ministry had first temporarily suspended the mayor on January 7, 2015. Later on, Arif was named in the chargesheet filed over the bomb attack on Suranjir Sengupta’s rally.
On January 3, 2017, Arif secured bail in all the cases filed against him and got out of prison after two years and 5 days of imprisonment. On March 13, 2017, the High Court halted the LGRD Ministry’s suspension order against Ariful after the mayor filed a writ against it.
On March 23, the Appellate Division did not turn the HC verdict after the state filed for appeal.
On the other hand, Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) mayor Bulbul had also got the court verdict in favour of him and resumed office on Sunday 3pm after breaking down the locks on his office door that were placed there by ‘unknown people’.
However, Bulbul had received the suspension letter right after resuming office.
