Bangladesh’s former chief justice Surendra Kumar Sinha has been sentenced to eleven years in prison on Tuesday in a money laundering case he had earlier termed politically motivated. He was found guilty by a special court in Dhaka in the case where around TK 40 million (~$466000 million) was illegally deposited in his personal account, reports said. 

Dhaka special judge court-4 judge Sheikh Najmul Alam pronounced a sentence in the case today afternoon. He is among 11 others, including senior officials of the bank, facing the allegation of money laundering and accumulating illegal wealth.  

Sinha, who served as the top judge between 2015 to 2017, however, had earlier rejected these charges and accused Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of targeting him by misusing laws. He had extremely uneasy relations with the Hasina government. 

In 2017, Sinha, who was heading a seven-judge-bench in the Supreme Court, had upheld a high court decision striking down the 16th amendment--a move that was publicly criticized by Hasina and her cabinet members.  

The controversial amendment had provisions empowering parliament to remove judges of the top court. A few days after the judgment, Sinha was reportedly forced to leave the country following the judgment and was allegedly made to resign weeks after the controversy. 

In 2019, the country’s Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) opened up an investigation in a case involving the transaction of around $466000 in his account. In July 2019, the ACC filed the case accusing former chief justice Sinha and 10 others of accumulating illegal wealth and laundering Tk 40 million.

Later In September that year, the ACC questioned five senior of Farmers Bank Ltd, where the chief justice maintained his bank account, for interrogation over the deposit of Tk 40 million in Sinha's account. 

(SAM)