SC stays acquittal of Regent Chairman Shahed
Staff Reporter :
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Sunday stayed till April 22 a January 11 High Court verdict that acquitted Regent Group Chairman Mohammad Shahed alias Shahed Karim, of the life term imprisonment, in an arms case.
Justice M Enaytur Rahim, Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division, passed the order after hearing a petition filed by the state against the High Court verdict.
The Chamber Judge also asked the state to file a regular leave to appeal petition with the Appellate Division against the High Court verdict.
Earlier on January 11, the HC acquitted Shahed Karim of the charges in
the arms case, in which he got life term imprisonment by the trial court.
The High Court bench of Justice Ashish Ranjan Das and Justice Md Riaz Uddin Khan delivered the verdict after hearing his appeal petition filed against trial court verdict.
Attorney General AM Amin Uddin and Deputy Attorney General Sarwar Hossain Bappi appeared in the court proceedings representing the state, while lawyers S M Shahjahan and Shah Monjurul Hoque appeared for Shahed Karim.
A Special Tribunal in Dhaka on September 28 in 2020 sentenced Regent Group Chairman Shahed Karim to life term imprisonment in the arms case.
He was also given seven years’ imprisonment for possessing bullets under another section of Firearms Act, but the punishment will be run simultaneously, said the court.
RAB officials arrested Shahed from the border area of Debhata upazila in Satkhira on July 15 in 2020 when he was trying to leave the country on a boat.
Then he was put on remand in a case filed over issuing fake Covid-19 test results and charging patients unfairly for testing and treatment.
On July 18 in 2020, a team of DB police found Shahed’s private car in front of a house in Sector-11 in the city’s Uttara area. They then seized a pistol with a round of bullet from the car and later a case under the Arms Act was filed against him with the Uttara West Police Station.
DB Inspector Md Sairul Islam on July 30 that year submitted the charge sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court in Dhaka in the case. The Special Tribunal-1 of Dhaka framed charges against Shahed on August 27 in 2020 in the case.
