Bangladeshi loses bid to reclaim RM723k seized in Immigration raid
Judicial commissioner Dr Hazlina Hussain ruled that there was no procedural error by the Sessions Court judge to justify intervention by the higher court.
According to the court document, Salman Ahmad Chowdhury as applicant had pleaded guilty to breaching the conditions of his temporary employment visit pass by working at an unauthorised premises in Ampang.
Salman was fined RM400 and ordered to be deported. He did not appeal the order before his deportation.
During the raid on Jan 17, enforcement officers from the Immigration Department found Salman in possession of multiple foreign passports and large sums of money kept in a safe deposit box.
Following Salman's guilty plea, the lower court also ordered the forfeiture of RM723,000 to the government.
His former employer, Agensi Pekerjaan Insight Alliance Sdn Bhd (the agent), was also fined RM10,000 for hiring an undocumented migrant and did not appeal the conviction.
However, on May 6, Salman and the agent applied to High Court to exercise its revisionary power to revise the learned lower court's decision on an order to forfeit the monies.
Lawyers Mohd Haziq Razali and Nur Khairunnisa Sabirah Abdul Manan submitted that was no nexus between the cash and the immigration offence.
However, the judge disagreed.
"To the court, if the counsel's argument had any merit, it was quite perplexing as to who now owns the cash if the forfeiture order by the Sessions Court was wrong.
"There is indeed a nexus between Salman and the disputed money, based on the police report.
"Furthermore, Salman admitted to all the exhibits tendered before the trial judge.
"By denying the forfeiture order, as counsel did, they were also questioning the guilty plea Salman had made before the lower court, which the court thought devoid of merit," she said in her grounds of judgment.
Salman and the agent filed an appeal to the Court of Appeal.
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