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Download PDF The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday pressed charges against two former ministers and 23 others of causing a Tk 127.64 crore loss to the exchequer by selling 18 abandoned government houses at lower prices.
ACC Assistant Director Khairul Huda submitted the charge sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s (CMM) Court, Dhaka against detained former housing and public works minister Mirza Abbas, former commerce minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, ex-political secretary to the prime minister Harris Chowdhury, three ex-secretaries and a number of high officials of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) and Power Development Board (PWD), among others.
The anti-graft body filed the case with Motijheel Police Station on March 29.
The other accused are Rajuk’s Chief Engineer Reazul Manir, Secretary Mir Mosharraf Hossain, former directors Humayun Khan and Golam Nabi, former member and present Civil Aviation and Tourism Secretary Shahid Alam, and officials Emdadul Hossain and Mohammad Ali.
Former PWD engineer Syed Mahfuz Ahmed, former housing and public works secretary SM Jafrullah, PWD official Ziauddin Ahmed and Director of Purbachal Project Abdus Sadeque are among those accused.
The rest are former lawmaker Kazi Anwar Hossain, former housing and public works secretary Iqbal Uddin Chowdhury, Managing Director of Cocola Foods Company Ltd Shukkur Miah, Chairman of Advanced Development Technologies Ltd SM Anwar Hossain, Chairman of M/S MN Company Limited Niu ze Mendes, proprietor of Electro Mart Company Limited Nurus Sofa, Chairman of Matco Company Shafiqur Rahman Kiron, Chittagong Awami League leader Afsar Uddin’s wife Hasna Ahmed, Ambia Group Managing Director Abul Kasem, former secretary general of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) Ali Haider Chowdhury, Mehedi Hasan of Orion Group and Basundhara Group Chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan alias Shah Alam.
Of them, only Abbas and Humayun Khan are behind bars.
Khairul Huda, also the investigation officer of the case, prayed for arrest warrants to be issued against Amir Khasru, Harris, Shah Alam and 20 others and orders for attachment of their properties.
The names of Harris and Amir Khasru and 11 others were included in the charge sheet since investigation has found their involvement in the offence.
The charges were pressed under section 409/109 of the penal code, section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 and section 15 of the Emergency Power Rules, 2007.
Huda said the charges have been proved primarily and so the accused should be brought to trial.
According to the prosecution, Abbas told parliament on June 7 last year that in accordance with the Bangladesh Abandoned Property (control, management and disposal) Order 1972, the housing ministry is authorised to control, manage and dispose of abandoned houses.
But before informing the House of the legal aspects, he had already ordered for measures to sell the abandoned houses. Accordingly, the Rajuk published an auction notice in different national dailies on April 5, 2006 for 10 of the houses.
They sold the 18 houses at a “fake auction” at prices much lower than the then market rates. The sale bypassing an open auction resulted in a loss of Tk 127.64 crore to the nation’s coffers.
The houses sold are located in posh areas like Gulshan, Banani, Dhanmondi and New Eskaton.
As the housing minister, Abbas was vocal in his opposition to the use of residential plots for commercial purposes.
In response to a lawmaker’s query, he told the House on June 7 last year that the law provides for punitive action against anyone using residential plots for commercial purposes.
Interestingly, he kept silence when his relatives built an automobile works on a large piece of land at Shajahanpur. The plot was allotted to Abbas’ family for residential purpose.
Abbas, also a former mayor of the Dhaka City Corporation, allegedly influenced the Rajuk authorities in 1996 to split a children’s park into plots and allot those to his brothers, sisters and other relatives as persons affected by previous development projects in the city.
Meantime, ACC Secretary Mokhles Ur Rahman said that the charges have been brought not only against the 12 people who stand accused in the first information report (FIR) but also the 13 beneficiaries.
CASE AGAINST SALAHUDDIN’S FAMILY
Judge Mohammad Azizul Haq of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court yesterday ordered attachment of properties of former BNP lawmaker from Demra Salahuddin Ahmed’s wife Shamsunnahar and son Imran Ahmed in two cases filed for tax evasion.
Earlier on September 16, the National Board of Revenue’s (NBR) Additional Assistant Tax Commissioner SM Ibrahim filed the cases against them.
Shamsunnahar as director of ITS Enterprise Ltd had dodged income tax totalling Tk 2,132,178 between the fiscal years 2002 and 2007.
Her son Imran Ahmed evaded Tk 20,352,568 income tax for the fiscal years between 2002 and 2006.
Imran also withheld from the NBR information about his taxable income, earnings from sale of flats and shares, private car, money deposited in different banks and source of income.
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