Latest interrogation has also revealed that former home minister Lutfozzaman Babar had actually made a huge fortune of $7 million from the deal.

Steps have already been taken to sell a house in Dubai that he illegally bought in the name of the son of Ali Asgar Lobi, a former BNP lawmaker, to deposit $1.5 million with the exchequer as part of the rip-off amount of the Warid Telecom. Lobi's son received instruction from his family yesterday to sell the house.

Sources said Warid had obtained its operating licence in Bangladesh in exchange for a $15 million graft deal with the Hawa Bhaban clique. The investigators have come to know that the money was shared by Koko, Lobi and Babar.

With his share of the booty, Koko bought the Dubai house and deposited another $2 million with two banks in Hong Kong. During interrogation, Babar said he retained $7 million of the deal -- $3 million he kept with him and the rest with his brother. The former state minister for home promised to pay back $4.5 million, but the rest $2.5 million has been sent abroad through his brother. Babar also confessed that another $3.5 million is lying with Lobi. But Lobi, who is now in jail, has said he has only $1 million with him.

Warid owned by Sheikh Nahayan Mubarak Al Nahayan of the UAE obtained its operating licence in 2005 and the deal was since then seen with suspicion as the group paid a small amount -- only $50 million -- to the government for the deal.

Throughout the BNP-led four-party rule, Koko remained a low-key figure in the Khaleda family and let his elder brother Tarique take a leading role in politics and corrupt private deals. But staying out of public scrutiny, Koko made his fortunes from various shady and illegal businesses. His only publicly known business was of billboard advertisement, which also smacks of allegations of monopolising.

Meantime, the government exchequer has received Tk 435.45 crore until June 6 that the joint forces recovered from different corrupt suspects and business groups involved in shady deals.

Sources said another Tk 100 crore is expected to be deposited by end of this week.

James Finlay, a British tea company, deposited Tk 237.65 crore to the Bangladesh Bank on April 19 as part of the money taken out against sell of its tea estates in Sylhet. MGH Group owned by Anis Ahmed Gorky deposited Tk 23.80 crore on April 23 as part of a deal to return the money he kept from Khaleda's son Tarique Rahman.

Bashundhara Group returned Tk 77 crore on May 28. Kazi Saleemul Haque, a director of Prime Bank, returned Tk 20 crore on May 30 on behalf of Babar, who received the money from Bashundhara Group Chairman Ahmed Akhtar Sobhan as part of the deal to save his son from a murder case. On the same day, Mohammad Shahjahan of Kabir Steel Ltd of Chittagong deposited Tk 7 crore. Controversial Chittagong businessman S Alam, who had close link with Tarique, deposited Tk 60 crore on June 6 and on the same day, Amin Ahmed Group deposited Tk 10 crore.