ACC arrests four current, former govt officials for embezzlement

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday arrested four current and former government officials in three separate cases for misappropriating about Tk 11.26 crore at different times.

The arrested are Executive Officer of Sonali Bank Mosharef Hossain, Manager and Executive Officer of Sonali Bank Jakir Hossain, Engineer of Local Government and Engineering Division (LGED) of Patiya Ziaul Haque Dulal and former civil surgeon Dr Aftab Uddin Ahmed.

Meanwhile, the anti-graft watchdog sued Ekushey Television's former chairman Abdus Salam, its Director Ashraful Alam and Senior Manager (Finance) Fazlur Rahman Shikdar for allegedly laundering Tk 26.7 lakh.

Sources said LGED engineer Dulal "gobbled up" Tk 6.34 lakh from a project and did not construct a 172 metre road in Bagaichhari Upazila of Chittagong during the 2013-14 fiscal.

He was sued on March 8, 2016.

Documents show former civil surgeon Aftab embezzled Tk 9,164,096, by withdrawing money without deducting VAT and showing higher values of medicines and instruments than the market price in the 1997-98 fiscal.

He was sued on March 21, 2016.

According to another case statement, Sonali Bank Manager Jakir Hossain, former senior executive officer Kazi Enamul Haque, former executive officer Mofizul Islam Chowdhury, former senior executive officer Kamal Hossain lent Tk 6.15 crore to Pellucid Textile's chairman Mohsin Ahmed, its managing director Mahbub-ul-Azam Khan and director Safiul Amin illegally because they had already been classified as loan defaulters by the bank.

They were sued on September 30, 2015.

Another statement reads that the bank officials Mosharraf and Jakir provided managing director of Oli Knitting Fabrics Ltd Ayesha Afroz Tk 4.14 crore from the cash incentive fund of the bank against fake documents.

They were sued on July 2, 2015.

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Sources said on instruction of Salam, his brother Ashraful borrowed Tk 26.7 lakh from Premier Bank, and later converted the money to €30,000 on January 26, 2015.

Later €20,000 was given to Senior Manager (Finance) Fazlur to hand it over to Salam.

Fazlur kept the Euro at his mother-in-law Dania's house, which the Rapid Action Battalion seized about a year later.