Tk 7 Crore Embezzlement of RDA Fund
Accounts of 2 staff, family members frozen
Bangladesh Bank (BB) froze bank accounts of 10 people including a cashier and a sub-assistant engineer of Rajshahi Development Authority (RDA) and their family members for one month as per anti-money laundering act.
BB yesterday issued a letter to all banks instructing to send all information about those accounts in three days.
The accounts were in the name of cashier Ekhlas Uddin, his first wife Merina Parvin, second wife Chahatun Khatun, his son Tariqul Islam, daughters Sohana Parvin and Sonia Parvin, his brother-in-law and sub-assistant engineer Shahidul Islam, Islam's wife Nusrat Jahan Mala and Islam's two daughters Sabiha Islam and Antara Raisa.
Our Rajshahi correspondent adds: RDA suspended Ekhlas on March 1 for allegedly misappropriating around Tk seven crore of its fund by forging bank cheques.
RDA Chairman Abdur Rahim said a seven-member committee with RDA's authorised officer Abul Kalam Azad as convener, formed to investigate the matter, primarily found the allegations true.
RDA officials said Ekhlas was employed at RDA for the last 29 years and scheduled to go on Leave Prior to Retirement at end of this year.
The authorities in late February found a suspicious Tk 80 lakh additional expenditure in January. They found Tk 2 crore embezzled from 2009-10 to 2010-11 and over Tk 5 crore from 2004-05 to 2008-09 fiscal years, said Rahim.
When asked for details of January's expenditure, Ekhlas fled with his family to Dhaka on February 23. Ekhlas returned Tk 2 crore on March 3. The authority took his undertaking to return the rest of the money, he said.
Ekhlas went into hiding from March 7 and the authority, from March 15, was publishing advertisement in newspapers for information on his whereabouts, he said.
Rahim said they requested the home ministry and Bangladesh Border Guards to stop Ekhlas from fleeing abroad.
Ekhlas was not available when contacted on his cell phone. His son Tarikul Islam on March 1 said his father was admitted to Square Hospitals in Dhaka.
“The allegations arose as my father had a feud with the RDA chairman over several official matters. He will make everything clear on his return,” Tarikul said.
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