The High Court has reduced the jail term of former Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Minister Nazmul Huda to four years from seven years in a bribery case filed during the regime of military-backed caretaker government, local media reports said on Wednesday (Nov 8).
An HC bench also asked him to surrender before a trial court within 45 days after a copy of the verdict reaches the trial court.
At the same time, the court said, the jail term which Nazmul Huda's wife Sigma Huda, who was awarded three years' imprisonment in the case, has already served will be considered as his punishment. The HC came up with the orders after rehearing a petition filed by the couple.
In August, 2007, a Special Judge's Court sentenced the former minister to seven years' imprisonment while his wife to three years' imprisonment in the case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). It also fined Nazmul Huda Tk2.5cr.
However, the HC in March, 2011, acquitted them from the charge and later the Appellate Division in December, 2014, scrapped the HC verdict and asked for hearing the petition again.
The ACC filed the case against Barrister Nazmul Huda and his wife Sigma Huda in March, 2007 on charge of taking Tk2.40cr as bribe from a businessman.
