Arrest warrant against Dr Iqbal, Mirza Azam

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A Dhaka court yesterday issued arrest warrants against former Awami League (AL) lawmaker Dr HBM Iqbal, four of his family members and Mirza Azam, also an ex-MP on AL ticket, in graft cases.

Meantime, detained former communications minister Nazmul Huda and his wife Sigma Huda were shown arrested yesterday in a Tk 2crore extortion case.

Another Dhaka court yesterday re-fixed December 5 to hear a seven-day remand petition against former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar who is charged with taking Tk 21 crore in bribe in exchange for dropping murder charges against a son of Basundhara Group chairman.

IQBAL CASE
Judge Mohammad Azizul Haque at Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court issued the arrest warrants against Iqbal and his family and fixed November 27 for next hearing of the case filed against them for concealing wealth in their statement to the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Investigation Officer Mohammad Helal Uddin Sharif, also an ACC assistant director, submitted charge sheet to Dhaka’s chief metropolitan magistrate’s court against Iqbal, his wife Dr Momtaj Begum Dolly, their sons Moinuddin Iqbal and Imran Iqbal and daughter Nawrin Iqbal.

Showing the Iqbal family as fugitives, the investigation officer prayed for arrest warrants against them and attachment of their property.

Mohammad Ibrahim, another ACC assistant director, laid the case against the Iqbal family with Gulshan Police Station on June 25, allegedly for amassing Tk 11.43 crore through corruption and for concealing assets in their February 26 wealth statement to the ACC.

Iqbal has been in hiding since February when the government launched a massive corruption-busting drive across the country. The watchdog asked the former lawmaker to submit wealth statement in person. He, however, managed to report wealth by proxy after securing a High Court order to that end.

Iqbal in his statement mentioned that he and his spouse own about Tk 38 crore in cash and assets.

The ACC investigators later unearthed that concealment of assets apart, Iqbal’s stated assets also do not conform to his known sources of income.

According to the case statement, Iqbal hid information about an illegally acquired Tk 5.3 crore house at Gulshan Avenue, which he registered in his wife’s name, and a Tk 5 crore fixed deposit.

AZAM CASE
The same court yesterday issued arrest warrants against Mirza Azam, also the general secretary of Awami Jubo League, and Mohammad Ali Khokon, proprietor director of Metro Spinning Ltd.

They and another proprietor director of the spinning mill, Shawkat Ali, have been implicated in a graft case filed with Gulshan Police Station.

The complainant, a Rab official, complained in his case statement that Azam, a corruption suspect on an ACC list, imported a tax-free Lexus SUV on March 25, 2003, using his privilege as a lawmaker, and later sold it to Shawkat by preparing fake documents.

The High Court earlier granted ad interim bail to Shawkat until police submit report to chief metropolitan magistrate’s court of Dhaka. Azam and Khokon are in hiding.

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