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Shokrana guilty of hiding past

Judicial probe body asks EC for legal action, recommends steps against RO, SP

Shakhawat Liton
A judicial probe body has asked the Election Commission (EC) to take legal action against BNP candidate Mohammad Shokrana of Bogra-1 constituency for concealing criminal records in the affidavit attached to his nomination papers.
The probe body comprising a joint district judge and an assistant district judge also recommended actions against the returning officer (RO) and the superintendent of police (SP) for neglect in duty, sources say.
As per the provisions of the Representation of the People Order (RPO), a person will be disqualified for election as or for being a member [of parliament] if they conceal information in affidavits.
It means Shokrana has become disqualified for the election and his membership to parliament, if he wins victory, will be cancelled.
The probe body has found Shokrana concealed records of four criminal cases filed against him and in three of the cases he was sentenced to imprisonment for various terms.
He did not mention the fact in the affidavit, sources say quoting the findings of the probe report sent to EC.
During scrutiny of nomination papers, the RO okayed Shokrana's candidacy illegally ignoring clear proofc against him of concealing information. On the other hand, the SP did not perform his duty properly in this connection.
Both of them did not want cancellation of the BNP candidate's candidacy since he is an influential candidate, says a source quoting theprobe report
On Receiving the report, EC yesterday held a meeting and briefly discussed the issue but did not take a decision regarding Shokrana, meetingsources say.
The sources add that the EC rather seemed confused whether it will take actions on grounds of concealing informa-
tion since the information relates to cases tried long ago.
Contacted by The Daily Star, Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hossain however said the accused candidate was convicted in cases during 1973-74.
"We have to examine the documents more. The police will collect necessary documents in this regard," he said.
The election commissioner said there is still scope to take legal action against the candidate if he is found guilty, regardless of his victory in the polls.
As per the election official laws, EC is empowered to withdraw any of the election officials or law-enforcement agency members from election duty if they fail to execute their tasks properly. Moreover, EC can ask their appointing authorities to take departmental action againstthem.
PROBE FINDINGS
The probe report finds that Shokrana concealed information of four criminal cases filed against him.
Of those, he was handed down three years' imprisonment in 1975 in a criminal case, and in another case he was
sentenced to imprisonment for three and a half years in 1975.
Earlier in 1973, he was jailed for life in another criminal case. He was also acquitted of a criminal case in 1974.
But Shokrana did not mention these pieces of information in his affidavit submitted with his nomination papers.
Besides, the probe body, which investigatea the cases on the orders of the EC directives, said it did not find information about some other cases since those were filed long ago.
"There has been no proof of his involvement in some other cases since those were filed long ago and it's not possible to find tne case records; and sufficient information is not available to the police, " says the probe body which is also working as the electoral enquiry committee to prevent pre-polls irregularities.
During investigation, the probebodyfound that when the matter was published in different dailies, the RO and the SP put the blame on each other.
Their statements are contradictory and lack cooperation between them, the report observes.