Amber Group Chairman Shawkat Aziz Russell, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison in a plot allotment case in Purbachal, has been sent to jail by a court.
He surrendered to the Dhaka Special Judge's Court on Sunday and sought bail on the condition of an appeal. However, the application was rejected, and the son of Partex Group founder late MA Hashem had to go to jail.
Russell surrendered before Judge Md. Abdus Salam of Dhaka Special Judge's Court-9 and applied for bail. Former Dhaka Bar Association president Golam Mostafa Khan argued on his behalf. On the other hand, prosecutor Khandaker Shamim Hossain opposed the bail on behalf of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). The ACC lawyer said that Russell's lawyers had sought bail on the condition of appealing the verdict in the case. However, the court rejected the application and ordered him to be sent to prison.
Earlier, on October 13, the court sentenced eight people, including Russell, his brother Ashfaq Aziz Rubel, and former RAJUK chairman Iqbaluddin Chowdhury, to seven years in prison on two counts, for a total of 14 years in prison in the same case.
The other convicted defendants are former RAJUK members SD Fayez, AKM Wahedul Islam, SM Zafar Ullah, HM Zahurul Haque and Rezaul Karim Tarafdar.
According to the case, the concerned officials of RAJUK abused their power and deprived legitimate applicants by allocating two plots of 10 katha each in Purbachal in the name of Russell and his brother Rubel. The allegations state that these irregularities took place between 2001 and 2004.
At that time, their father M.A. Hashem was the BNP MP from Noakhali-2 constituency. Russell is currently the chairman and managing director of Amber Group. He is also the president of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA). His brother Rubel is the managing director of Partex Group and vice chairman of City Bank.
In this incident, the then Deputy Director of the ACC, Sylvia Ferdous, filed a case with Motijheel Police Station on February 8, 2017. After the investigation, a charge sheet was submitted to the court against eight people on September 4, 2018. Later, on August 26, 2019, the court ordered the initiation of the trial by framing charges against the accused.
