Dhaka, Nov 19 (V7N) – Former home minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury has been acquitted in two separate cases, one filed for possessing assets beyond known sources of income and another for alleged sabotage.

The verdicts, delivered on Tuesday by Judges Manzurul Hasan of Dhaka’s Special Judge Court-8 and Abul Kashem of Court-1, annulled the previous 21-month prison sentence handed down in the sabotage case filed at Gulshan police station.

Defence lawyer Anisur Rahman confirmed the acquittal, stating that the courts had dismissed the charges against the former minister.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had lodged the first case on December 18, 2007, at Ramna police station. The ACC accused Altaf Hossain Chowdhury of acquiring assets worth Tk15.3 crore, registered under his name and his wife Suraiya Akhter Chowdhury, while concealing this information, violating sections 26(2) and 27(1) of the ACC Act, 2004.

In the sabotage case, filed on June 4, 2011, it was alleged that Chowdhury and others obstructed police operations, vandalized vehicles, and set them ablaze during an unauthorized assembly in the Mohakhali area of Gulshan. Sub-inspector Kamrul Hasan Talukder of Gulshan police station submitted the charge sheet on April 29, 2014, and the court formally framed charges on April 25, 2022.

Throughout the trial, seven out of 12 witnesses provided testimony. Despite the December 28 ruling by Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury sentencing Chowdhury to 21 months in prison, the higher courts overturned the convictions in both cases.

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