It turned out that Nurul Islam's retirement is linked to a corrupt circle in the PMO, headed by a powerful political appointee, that deals with transfers and promotions in exchange for money and other types of graft. The acting secretary became a victim of their wrath as he, on many occasions, acted against the interest of the graft cartel, as directed by the PM.

This high level political appointee and his men waited for a chance to jump on him and they got it when Nurul Islam ordered a very routine check -- to confirm whether the sender of a letter alleging graft in a project is genuine and to know whether the project in question is also genuine.

It was in fact a routine check as done in dozens of instances every month as the PMO receives letter of allegations of important nature regularly. In ordering the check, what Nurul Islam or for that matter two other officials also involved in the action, missed is that at the very bottom of the letter, Tarique Rahman's name was mentioned as a party to the graft.

According to sources in the PMO, the letter sent by an alleged chief engineer of Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (Wasa), arrived at the top office on April 20 alleging corruption in the Pagla water treatment plant project considered under Chinese supplier's credit.

Sources said Nurul Islam sent the letter to the director concerned at the PMO to follow the routine practice. The director sent a file to Nurul Islam through an additional secretary of the PMO. It was then sent to five relevant authorities -- the Economic Relations Division, finance ministry, Local Government and Engineering Division, industries ministry and power division -- to check the authenticity of the sender and the project.

"It was a long letter and Tarique's name was mentioned only once at the bottom and so it missed the attention of all who dealt with the file," a source said. "The five authorities were asked to take necessary action after examination. It was never an order to investigate the issue. There are clearly prescribed rules to open an investigation, which Nurul Islam was not empowered to do."

This statement is corroborated by the fact that no investigation committee was formed.

The ministries and divisions replied that the sender of the letter does not exist as Wasa does not have any engineer by that name. Moreover, the project was still under discussion and so, allegations of corruption do not arise. The matter apparently ended there. But then it did not as the political appointee found it to be the best weapon to launch his campaign to remove Nurul Islam.

And in his vilification attempt, the political appointee invented the story of information leaks from the PMO by transferring important documents into compact discs (CDs). The same political appointee briefed a section of the media that Nurul Islam removed CDs from the PMO, which was subsequently proven to be false. The 'lost discs' were found in the office, exactly where they were supposed to be, and handed to the Bureau of Anti-corruption.

The allegation of illegally transferring documents into CDs also proved false. Sources in the PMO said it was decided with the consent of the PM and other relevant senior staff that instead of preserving photocopies of all important decisions for ready reference, these would be stored in CDs. Accordingly, summaries of all decisions taken since 2001 have been digitised and kept at the PMO.

The Daily Star investigation found that the bizarre and sudden downfall of the high-profile bureaucrat, who worked very closely with Prime Minister Khaleda Zia from 1992 to 1994 and then was posted to important places at her directive, is an outcome of the long tussle that developed over certain moves of the PM against the corrupt officials.

The PM herself ordered an investigation against a number of officials in her office who on feeble grounds opted to drop out of her entourage team abroad. It was confirmed that these officials had been regularly maintaining a lobby to get share of funds distributed for land acquisition. The latest such incident occurred when land was acquired for a housing project in Uttara.

The campaign for Nurul Islam's removal was hastened when a powerful political appointee of the PM, well-known for lobbying against payment from parties concerned, could not get six joint secretaries to be promoted to additional secretary. The PM wanted a joint secretary of the health ministry to be appointed on contract as an additional secretary before she left for Shanghai on May 27. The political appointee wanted his men to be included on that list, which never happened, making Nurul Islam draw wrath from the corrupt group.

Earlier, the same circle also asked the chief engineer of Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) to restore telephone connections to 85 illegal international call traders using VoIP technology. The PM stopped the corruption reportedly after she got the information from Nurul Islam, adding to the anger of the graft cartel.

The PM became suspicious when two of her officials opted out of her Geneva and Pakistan entourage on flimsy grounds and reportedly asked Nurul Islam to investigate the matter. The officials could not give any satisfactory answer.

Sources said a large amount of illegal commission from land acquisition -- was supposed to reach the graft cartel in the PMO at the time of the visit and the two would have missed their booty had they been absent. Sources in the Dhaka Deputy Commissioner's Office also confirmed paying this quarter regular amounts on any land acquisition.

When Nurul Islam reportedly informed the PM about the vice, she wanted a list of the land administration officials involved in the graft. Accordingly, a list of 17 staff was prepared and the PM wanted them to be transferred outside Dhaka. This never happened, thanks to the influence of the graft cartel. But the corrupt never forgave Nurul Islam for the move.

In case of the crackdown on illegal international call operators, a BTTB engineer reported that he had been ordered by an APS and a press wing official to restore 85 phone lines of the operators in 24 hours. The PM came to know this and stopped the move.

Again, Nurul Islam was singled out by the group.

Another directive of the PM to stop misuse of cars by some PMO officials -- implemented by Nurul Islam -- also angered the vested quarter. It was found that about 40 cars belonging to different departments are illegally used by the PMO staff from the political appointee to officials in the press wing. The ministries had to bear the fuel cost of the cars and the officials often used Special Security Force (SSF) stickers on the cars to have free access to sensitive areas. Nurul Islam stopped this whole illegal practice and sent back the cars to where they belonged.

And in an even more bizarre revelation, it was found that some 150 staff from various departments worked at the PMO under various pretexts and without proper authorisation. Some of them mysteriously picked titles for themselves like 'liaison officers' -- a post that has never existed at the PMO. As ordered by the PM, Nurul Islam again cleaned up the PMO and most of these 150 staff had to go back to their original work. Today, less than 20 are there at the PMO.

Now, all these events accumulated into anger for the corrupt quarter and when they found a chance -- examination of the graft allegations that included Tarique Rahman's name -- they struck. Nurul Islam is now under virtual house arrest, his telephone being tapped and movement watched. Sources said he may be arrested soon. One of the prime accusations against him will be breaking the official secrets act.