HC didn’t apply judicial mind in acquitting Maya: SC

Relief and Disaster Management Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya

Star Online Report

The Supreme Court has observed that the High Court has not at all applied its judicial mind in acquitting Relief and Disaster Management Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya of the corruption charges brought against him.
“It (High Court) did not at all assess the evidence on record although the special judge on assessment of the evidence convicted the respondent (Maya),” a three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha said in its full judgment.
Other two judges of the bench are: Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana and Justice Hasan Foez Siddique.
The SC, which had delivered the short verdict on June 14, today released its two-page full text saying that “the High Court Division shall dispose of the appeal on merit”.
The appeal was filed by Maya with the HC on May 25, 2009, challenging the special court’s verdict that on February 14, 2008, convicted him (Maya) and sentenced him to 13 years in jail, fined him Tk 5 crore, and ordered confiscation of about Tk 6 crore of his “ill-gotten” wealth .
The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case against Maya, also ruling Awami League leader, with Sutrapur Police Station on June 13, 2007.
The case was filed when the army-backed caretaker government was in power and conducting a drive against corruption of high-profile politicians and businesspeople.

Maya, who was on the run during the trial, did not stand in the 2008 parliamentary elections. He returned home after his party came to power.
Following his appeal, the HC bench of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Gobinda Chantra Tagore on October 27, 2010 scrapped the lower court judgment and acquitted Maya of the corruption case.
The ACC in 2011 appealed to the Supreme Court to scrap the HC's verdict.
Following the ACC’s appeal the Appellate Division on June 14 scrapped the HC verdict and sent the appeal of Maya to the HC for its rehearing and fresh disposal. 

Rajinikanths wife Latha denies being loan guarantor

Rajinikanths wife Latha denies being loan guarantor

Dhaka times Desk

Dhaka: Superstar Rajinikanth’s wife, Latha, today denied of being a guarantor for any loan as alleged by a Bengaluru-based firm and threatened ‘serious’ legal action against its owners for filing a police complaint against her.

Ad Bureau Advertising Pvt. Ltd., represented by its Managing Director Abhirchand Nahar, had filed the complaint ‘falsely alleging’ that she had stood as guarantor for a loan of Rs 14.9 crore to the producer of her husband-starrer ‘Kochadaiyaan’, a statement from her office said.

It said the company had filed a ‘false private complaint’ that only Rs 8.70 crore had been returned and that with an intention to evade payment, she had approached a Bengaluru court seeking injunction order with ‘fabricated documents.’

“Latha Rajinikanth has not stood as guarantor for any loans as has been alleged,” it said adding that the owners of Ad Bureau Advertising Pvt. Ltd., Nahar and his wife Chanchal, had “laid criminal pressure” upon Rajinikanth a year ago to make ‘wrongful gains.’

When she did not budge to the ‘illegal demand’ of taking the responsibility of recovery, further pressure was brought by way of ‘spiteful media campaigns’ and threats that they would go on a ‘character-assassination spree’ against her and her family “if she did not interfere immediately in the matter and ensured settlement of a so-called loan,” it said.

Meanwhile, she obtained a court order, restraining the media from publishing news about the dispute, but “false allegations of calling the relied documents as forged ones were made before the court and the same were thrown off,” it said.

“The act of Abirchand Nahar and his wife Chanchal of the said M/S Ad Bureau Advertising Pvt. Ltd. is entirely false, fraudulent, contemptuous, extortious and criminally ill intended. Latha Rajinikanth will be initiating serious legal action — both civil and criminal — in order to get them punished in accordance with law and for damages,” the statement said.

An FIR was lodged in Bengaluru after Ad Bureau had filed a complaint on June 9, alleging that Latha had produced fake documents in the court to defraud and illegally sell the rights of the film to an entertainment company.

- See more at: http://www.dhakatimes24.com/2015/06/16/70288/Rajinikanths-wife-Latha-denies-being-loan-guarantor#sthash.e8bHFGwN.dpuf

Dhaka times Desk

Dhaka: Superstar Rajinikanth’s wife, Latha, today denied of being a guarantor for any loan as alleged by a Bengaluru-based firm and threatened ‘serious’ legal action against its owners for filing a police complaint against her.

 Ad Bureau Advertising Pvt. Ltd., represented by its Managing Director Abhirchand Nahar, had filed the complaint ‘falsely alleging’ that she had stood as guarantor for a loan of Rs 14.9 crore to the producer of her husband-starrer ‘Kochadaiyaan’, a statement from her office said.

 It said the company had filed a ‘false private complaint’ that only Rs 8.70 crore had been returned and that with an intention to evade payment, she had approached a Bengaluru court seeking injunction order with ‘fabricated documents.’

 “Latha Rajinikanth has not stood as guarantor for any loans as has been alleged,” it said adding that the owners of Ad Bureau Advertising Pvt. Ltd., Nahar and his wife Chanchal, had “laid criminal pressure” upon Rajinikanth a year ago to make ‘wrongful gains.’

  When she did not budge to the ‘illegal demand’ of taking the responsibility of recovery, further pressure was brought by way of ‘spiteful media campaigns’ and threats that they would go on a ‘character-assassination spree’ against her and her family “if she did not interfere immediately in the matter and ensured settlement of a so-called loan,” it said.

  Meanwhile, she obtained a court order, restraining the media from publishing news about the dispute, but “false allegations of calling the relied documents as forged ones were made before the court and the same were thrown off,” it said.

 “The act of Abirchand Nahar and his wife Chanchal of the said M/S Ad Bureau Advertising Pvt. Ltd. is entirely false, fraudulent, contemptuous, extortious and criminally ill intended. Latha Rajinikanth will be initiating serious legal action — both civil and criminal — in order to get them punished in accordance with law and for damages,” the statement said.

  An FIR was lodged in Bengaluru after Ad Bureau had filed a complaint on June 9, alleging that Latha had produced fake documents in the court to defraud and illegally sell the rights of the film to an entertainment company.

- See more at: http://www.dhakatimes24.com/2015/06/16/70288/Rajinikanths-wife-Latha-denies-being-loan-guarantor#sthash.e8bHFGwN.dpuf

Rajinikanths wife Latha denies being loan guarantor

Dhaka times Desk

Dhaka: Superstar Rajinikanth’s wife, Latha, today denied of being a guarantor for any loan as alleged by a Bengaluru-based firm and threatened ‘serious’ legal action against its owners for filing a police complaint against her.

Ad Bureau Advertising Pvt. Ltd., represented by its Managing Director Abhirchand Nahar, had filed the complaint ‘falsely alleging’ that she had stood as guarantor for a loan of Rs 14.9 crore to the producer of her husband-starrer ‘Kochadaiyaan’, a statement from her office said.

It said the company had filed a ‘false private complaint’ that only Rs 8.70 crore had been returned and that with an intention to evade payment, she had approached a Bengaluru court seeking injunction order with ‘fabricated documents.’

“Latha Rajinikanth has not stood as guarantor for any loans as has been alleged,” it said adding that the owners of Ad Bureau Advertising Pvt. Ltd., Nahar and his wife Chanchal, had “laid criminal pressure” upon Rajinikanth a year ago to make ‘wrongful gains.’

When she did not budge to the ‘illegal demand’ of taking the responsibility of recovery, further pressure was brought by way of ‘spiteful media campaigns’ and threats that they would go on a ‘character-assassination spree’ against her and her family “if she did not interfere immediately in the matter and ensured settlement of a so-called loan,” it said.

Meanwhile, she obtained a court order, restraining the media from publishing news about the dispute, but “false allegations of calling the relied documents as forged ones were made before the court and the same were thrown off,” it said.

“The act of Abirchand Nahar and his wife Chanchal of the said M/S Ad Bureau Advertising Pvt. Ltd. is entirely false, fraudulent, contemptuous, extortious and criminally ill intended. Latha Rajinikanth will be initiating serious legal action — both civil and criminal — in order to get them punished in accordance with law and for damages,” the statement said.

An FIR was lodged in Bengaluru after Ad Bureau had filed a complaint on June 9, alleging that Latha had produced fake documents in the court to defraud and illegally sell the rights of the film to an entertainment company.

- See more at: http://www.dhakatimes24.com/2015/06/16/70288/Rajinikanths-wife-Latha-denies-being-loan-guarantor#sthash.e8bHFGwN.dpuf

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Two-thirds of Dhaka Wasa area lacks drainage

Behind Waterlogging in Dhaka

Poor planning, filling up of canals aggravate situation every monsoon

Tawfique Ali

Life in Dhaka city virtually comes to a standstill every time there is a monsoon rain. Many areas go under water due to scanty storm drainage system and the indiscriminate filling up of water retention areas by private and government entities over the years.
Shantinagar, Khilgaon, Bashabo, Malibagh, Shantibagh, Rajarbagh, Mughdah, Mohammadpur, Badda and different parts of Old Dhaka are among the areas that experience the worst of waterlogging after a shower.
Just a third of the 360-square kilometre Wasa service area is covered by storm-water drainage system. The Dhaka master plan area, however, is 1,528 sq km, officials said.
Wasa has a storm-water drainage system master plan for the capital, but its implementation will depend on the availability of funds, they added.
Canals, rivers and water retention areas collect, carry and retain rainwater and are connected with each other as a drainage network. But in recent decades, the city canals have either been grabbed or turned into box culverts for road construction, said Khondaker M Ansar Hossain, an urban planner who worked as a technical expert on Detailed Area Plan (DAP) for Dhaka.
The government had ignored repeated warnings of experts not to allow water retention areas and flood flow zones to be used for housing estates in the DAP, he said.
Open space and water bodies help evaporate a third of the rainwater, percolate another third while leaving the rest to run down to retention areas, Ansar said. But in the absence of those, water gets stuck on the city roads and takes hours to recede even after a light rain.

City dwellers are left to suffer for hours and sometimes days from almost stagnant water filled with filth. Traffic becomes a nightmare with vehicles breaking down in the water.
According to the Flood Action Plan and DAP, the city should have conserved 5,523 acres of water retention area (which is only 1.57 percent of the 1,528sqkm of Dhaka's master plan), 20,093 acres of canals and rivers (5.7 percent) and 74,598 acres (21 percent) flood flow zones. 
“Since DAP gazette notification in mid-2010, nearly all of the conservable wetlands have been filled up with silent government approbation,” Ansar said. 
He said designated water retention areas on the eastern fringe (like east of Santarkul near the Balu river) have been filled up by private housing developers, in Uttara third phase housing scheme by Rajuk and private developers, and in Mohammadpur by private developers.
In the name of development that was ill-planned and insensitive to the environment, the ponds, ditches, playgrounds, parks, water retention areas, flood flow zones and dozens of canals, which used to work as natural storm-water drainage system connecting the four Dhaka rivers, have been ruined.
Ishrat Islam, professor and head of the urban and regional planning department at Buet, echoed Ansar's view and said rainwater stagnation was increasing due to indiscriminate urbanisation. 
She said the artificial storm-water drainage system was not only meagre, it remained clogged with solid wastes reducing its functionality and aggravating the waterlogging situation.      
According to Taqsem A Khan, managing director of Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa), filling up of floodplains, wetlands and most of the 65 canals in Dhaka was the main reason for waterlogging.
Wasa maintains 320km of large-diameter concrete storm-water drains, 10kms of box culverts over canals and 65km of canals for the city's storm-water drainage management. This covers only a third of its area, said Taqsem. 
KS Ching, superintendent engineer of Wasa drainage department, said they managed 26 city canals for storm-water drainage but most of those remained clogged with solid wastes of households and commercial establishments.
The areas, where there is no formal storm-water drainage system, have to depend on natural systems like canals and wetlands. Severe stagnation would be inevitable if those canals and low-lying wetlands are filled up, he said.   
Wasa in 2012 installed large diameter storm-water drainage lines only in some parts of Gulshan, Dhanmondi, Mirpur Darussalam Road and Uttara.  
Wasa superintendent engineer Akhtaruzzaman, who was the project director of the Tk 47-crore scheme for Gulshan, said it was a piecemeal measure and had not ensured complete storm-water drainage.   
At present, a rainfall above 40mm in Dhaka would take at least three hours to recede, as the available system is capable of draining water of only 20mm of rainfall without causing too much public suffering, he said.
The city corporation authorities have to ensure that before monsoon their roadside drains are clear, including the water catch pit of storm-water drains, Akhtaruzzaman added.
Sirajul Islam, chief town planner of Dhaka South City Corporation, said the north and the south city corporations maintained over 2,000km feeder drains (open and small diameter pipes) to drain water from homes and rainwater and take them to canals and wide diameter (Wasa) storm sewer system.
Since population density is very high and the drainage capacity poor, rainwater takes hours to recede, he said.