HC stays suspension of Gazipur mayor

The High Court yesterday stayed for six months a government order suspending Gazipur City Corporation mayor MA Mannan for being charged with criminal offences.

The court also issued a rule asking the government to explain in four weeks why the suspension should not be declared illegal. 

The HC bench of Justice Quamrul Islam Siddique and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil passed the order and rule following a petition filed by Mannan challenging the suspension's legality.  

Mannan's lawyer Khandker Mahbub Hossain told The Daily Star that there was no legal bar on Mannan from discarging duties as the mayor following the HC order and that Mannan got bail in all 17 cases filed against him on different charges.

The government will, however, move an appeal before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court against the HC order, said Deputy Attorney General Mokhlesur Rahman.

The LGRD ministry on August 19 last year suspended Mannan, after a Gazipur court accepted a charge sheet against him in a case filed with Joydevpur Police Station for an arson attack on a bus in the city on February 4 the same year.

He was arrested in the capital on February 11 last year.