Babar sued for hiding Tk 7.6 crore wealth

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The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday filed a case against detained former state minister Lutfozzaman Babar for hiding information about wealth worth around Tk 7.6 crore, which is inconsistent to his known source of income.

ACC Assistant Director Mirza Zahidul Alam in the case filed with Ramna Police Station mentioned that Babar committed a punishable offence by owning the wealth and stealthily keeping it under his possession.

The case said Babar submitted a wealth statement showing that he along with his wife, son and daughter has moveable and immovable property worth about Tk 6.77 crore. He submitted the statement on July 7 last year through the senior jail super of Dhaka Central Jail following an ACC order.

Babar in the statement mentioned that construction cost of his 5,938sq-foot under-construction building at Madan upazila in Netrakona was Tk 8 lakh. But during verification the Public Works Department found the construction cost to be about Tk 34.43 lakh.

The case statement also said Babar did not mention over Tk 6.79 lakh deposited to his savings account with the Prime Bank Ltd in Gulshan.

Information collected from the bank shows $1 million was sent to Babar’s account through demand draft from HSBC Singapore on June 20, 2007.

The former state minister did not give any appropriate reply or explanation when he was asked about the source of money. It suggests he kept the money deposited abroad as it was not earned through legal sources.

The ACC official also mentioned in the case that if further information or other people’s involvement is found during the course of investigation that would also be included in the case.

Babar was arrested during a raid to his Gulshan residence on May 28 last year. The army-led joint forces also recovered four firearms — a shotgun, a rifle, a pistol and a Brazil-made revolver — two magazines, and 297 rounds of ammunition.

He has already handed down 17 years of rigorous imprisonment for possessing the arms and ammo illegally.

The joint forces recovered Tk 20 crore, which he received from Bashundhara Group in exchange for not implicating the conglomerate’s boss’ son Shafiat Sobhan in a murder case.

In July 2006, Humayun Kabir Sabbir, a director of Bashundhara Group owned by Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, was murdered and his body was found lying outside an apartment building in Gulshan. Sobhan’s son Shafiat was the main suspect in the killing.

Sobhan cut a shady deal with Babar that he would pay the latter Tk 20 crore in exchange of sparing his son of the murder charges.

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