The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday arrested six people accused in the GATCO graft case — in which former prime minister Khaleda Zia and her younger son Arafat Rahman Koko were also charged.
Among the arrestees, four are former Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) officials — AMM Shahadat Hossain, ex-chairman, Luthful Kabir, ex-director, AM Sanwar Hossain, ex-director (transport) and Ahmed Abul Qashem, former chief finance and accounts officer. The other two arrestees are directors of Global Agro Trade (Pvt) Company Ltd (GATCO) — Syed Galib Ahmed and Syed Tanveer Ahmed.
Golam Shahriar Chowdhury, deputy director of the ACC, filed the case with Tejgaon Police Station on September 2 against the former premier, her younger son and 11 others.
In its first graft case against Khaleda Zia, the ACC charged the accused with violating tender conditions in appointing GATCO, an indenting house, for container handling at the Dhaka Inland Container Depot (ICD) and the Chittagong Port ICD despite the firm’s having no prior experience or skills in the container handling business.
ACC officials said they made the arrests some time between the morning and 2:00pm yesterday. Some of the accused were arrested from the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area while the others from their residences.
Tejgaon Police Station Officer in Charge Jan-e-Alam said the ACC officials brought the arrestees to the police station at around 3:00pm to place them in their custody.
The other accused in the case are former CPA chairman Commodore (retd) Zulfiqur Ali, former shipping minister and BNP leader Col (retd) late Akbar Hossain’s son Ismail Hossain Simon, the former minister’s wife Jahanara Ansar, GATCO director AKM Musa Kajol and Ehsan Yusuf.
The accused were charged under section 5 (2) of Corruption Prevention Act 1947.
According to the case statement, GATCO tried to win the work through the intervention of the then shipping minister Akbar Hossain. The firm turned to different devious activities to successfully bag the deal through the abuse of power of the then prime minister Khaleda and her shipping minister Akbar in connivance with Akbar’s son Simon.
Khaleda Zia and her son Koko were arrested from their cantonment residence on September 3. They are currently under detention in jail.
Categories: Bangla, Bangladesh, Bangladesh Economy, Bangladesh News, Daily Bangladesh News, Economy, News
