"I have no intention to defame any quarter. My area of work is precise -- to campaign against corruption. It does not matter whether the person engaged in corruption is a politician, a businessman or a bureaucrat," said the ACC chief in an interview with the BBC Bangla Service.

He made the comment at a time when voices from different quarters have been suggesting that the ongoing anti-corruption drive aims at defaming politicians since charges are yet to be filed against a large number of detained lawmakers and ministers, around 70 in total, whereas only six or seven of them have so far been proven guilty.

"They have been held on the basis of your [media] reports that had been published over the past few years. Those reports were not lost. Rather, those were stored and we are working on that ground," Mashhud said.

The evidence against them would be placed before the court and that needs to be done very carefully. That is why it is taking some time, he added.

"It would be wrong for anyone to think that we are working towards a special motive," the ACC chairman added.

Replying to a question whether other politicians, now vocal for reforms within their political parties, would be asked to submit their wealth statements, Mashhud said referring to the recent remarks by two advisers that it would be a mistaken idea if anyone thinks that he or she would be exempt from the scrutiny of the ongoing anti-corruption drives just because he or she is vocal for reforms in a party.

"So far, nobody told me that you cannot do anything against a reformist," he said.

He refuted the allegation that the ACC has been trying to bully the lawyers representing the accused and said that if it had been a 'kangaroo court', then instead of two months, a trial would have taken only three days to be completed.