Dhaka: Bangladesh’s first Hindu Chief Justice S.K. Sinha will face probe for “grave” graft charges and moral lapses, the Law Minister said on Sunday, a day after he was accused of money laundering following his departure to Australia.
Minister Anisul Huq said the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) will investigate “almost all of the allegations” levelled against Sinha by the country’s president Abdul Hamid. “Nobody is above the law,” Huq told reporters after the apex court issued the statement, sparking a media uproar.
He, however, said “it is the prerogative of the President to take (the subsequent) actions if the charges are proved”.
The government’s row with the judiciary sparked in July this year when the apex court delivered a verdict declaring void 16th constitutional amendment, scrapping parliament’s authority over impeaching Supreme Court judges.
In an unusual move, the country’s Supreme Court (SC) said on Saturday the apex court judges earlier this month decided not to sit in the bench of Sinha over 11 “grave” charges brought brought to their notice against him by the President.
The Supreme Court issued a statement as Sinha overnight left for Australia, saying he was “embarrassed” over the controversy surrounding his July ruling. He also denied claims by the government that he was sick.
“I am not sick (as claimed by the government) and I am not fleeing either,” Sinha said while leaving, adding that his departure was “temporary”.
“What he (Sinha) said (ahead of his departure) is a lie,” Huq said reading out Sinha’s letter to the president in which he had conveyed to him about his sickness and willingness to go abroad.
