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S ALAM’S BUSINESSES ABROAD

SC halts probe till January 8
STAFF CORRESPONDENT
The Supreme Court yesterday put on hold until next year the enquiry into S Alam Group owner Mohammed Saiful Alam’s offshore businesses for which there is no record of him taking permission from Bangladesh Bank.
The chamber judge of the SC, Justice M Enayetur Rahim, passed the order, setting January 8, 2024, for holding the next hearing on the matter before a full bench led by the chief justice.
The judge ordered that a status quo be maintained regarding the matter until the next hearing.
On August 6, a High Court bench of Justice Khizir Hayat Lizu and Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder had ordered the Anti-Corruption Commission, Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit and police’s Criminal Investigation Department to probe the findings of a report published by The Daily Star on August 4.
The Daily Star investigation, titled “S Alam’s Aladdin’s Lamp,” found that Saiful Alam along with his wife has built a business empire worth at least about $1 billion in Singapore, although there is no record of him taking any permission from the central bank to invest or transfer any funds abroad.
At the hearing yesterday, senior lawyers Ajmalul Hossain, Ahsanul Karim and Mohammad Sayeed Ahmed Raza represented Alam and his wife Farzana Parveen, while a number of prominent lawyers in the bar took front-row seats.
On August 21, Alam’s lawyers moved the Appellate Division for a stay on the High Court’s August 6 suo moto rule.
At the hearing yesterday, nobody represented the government, or any of the government agencies that were ordered to probe Alam’s offshore businesses, except for Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan who argued for the ACC.
Other government entities made respondents to the HC rule include the secretaries of the ministries of finance, foreign affairs, law and home affairs, chairman of the National Board of Revenue, inspector general of police, special police super of immigration, and deputy commissioner and superintendent of police of Dhaka.
Attorney General AM Amin Uddin was present at the courtroom, but did not speak.
“Why would I speak? The state is not a party to this order,” he told The Daily Star after the hearing.
However, ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told this newspaper, “Since the High Court gave the rule, the state is the petitioner here. And the attorney general should have represented the government.”
Alam’s lawyers argued that the HC’s suo moto rule has no legal ground because it was given before the HC verified the authenticity of the evidence used in the newspaper report. Therefore, the court did not have any prima facie evidence.
In response, Justice Enayetur Rahim said The Daily Star has the evidence, and asked why it would be a problem if there is an enquiry.
Previously, Alam’s lawyers had placed the same arguments in a petition submitted to the attorney general’s office, asking for the investigation order to be recalled.
When passing the order on August 6, the HC asked The Daily Star to submit an affidavit by October 10 with regard to the authenticity of its report. Yesterday, The Daily The
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