Bangladesh’s former chief justice SK Sinha sentenced to 11 years in graft case

Dhaka: A Bangladeshi court on Tuesday sentenced in absentia former top judge Surendra Kumar Sinha, the country’s first chief justice from the minority Hindu community, to 11 years in jail on two counts of graft in a case over the laundering and breach of trust. Dhaka Special Judge 4 Shaikh Nazmul Alam sentenced the former chief justice, who currently lives in the United States, to seven years in prison for money laundering and another four years for criminal breach of trust. The prison terms will run concurrently, Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported. “(Justice) SK Sinha is the principal beneficiary of the laundered money,” the court said in its verdict. Sinha, 69, was sentenced to 11 years in prison in a case involving the laundering of Tk4 crore taken in credit from the Farmers Bank, now known as the Padma Bank, the report said. Among the 10 others tried in the case, Tangail residents, Md Shahjahan and Niranjan Chandra Saha, were acquitted as the charges against them were not proven. The rest have been given different terms of jail and slapped with fines, the report said. Sinha served as the 21st Chief Justice of Bangladesh from January, 2015 to November, 2017. Sinha, Bangladesh’s first chief justice from the minority Hindu community, has alleged that he was forced to resign because he opposed Bangladesh’s incumbent “undemocratic” and “authoritarian” regime. In his autobiography “A Broken Dream: Rule of Law, Human Rights and Democracy”, Sinha said he was forced to resign in 2017 following intimidation and threats, drawing a sharp reaction from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who had accused some anti-government newspapers of backing him