In a confession made to the joint forces, he also said that former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar had attempted to push through a Tk 1,500-crore project bypassing the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec), the authorities to examine and approve development projects.

The army-led joint forces arrested Naser on February 3. Later, Deputy Director of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Golam Shahriar filed a case against him as a probe found that he and his wife Rozina Naser have concealed Tk 2.63 crore in their wealth statement to the anti-graft body.

Naser was placed on a five-day remand on June 11.

During interrogation he said he had participated in three international tenders during the last BNP-led four-party alliance. Those were for the work of state-owned Teletalk mobile company, a 90-megawatt power plant at Fenchuganj, and computerization of the Bangladesh Bank, said sources close to the interrogators.

He was overlooked in the tender for Teletalk as the contract was awarded to former prime minister Khaleda Zia's son Arafat Rahman and Tarique Rahman's businessman friend Giasuddin Al-Mamun.

He however admitted that he had earned Tk 90 lakh from selling software to Warid Telecom and the Prime Bank, the sources added.

Naser, who was elected a member of parliament for Moulvibazar-3 constituency in a by-election, joined former foreign minister Morshed Khan's Pacific Telecom back in 1993 on his return from abroad.

He earned $70,000 from sale of Hutchison Telecom shares in Bangladesh, and made $70,000 more when he sold that chunk to Morshed.

He also received $60,000 in severance pay and another $30,000 in arrears from Hutchison and a previous job at a bank.

He became the local representative for Motorala in 1993 and earned $100,000 in two percent commission for all Motorala sales to Morshed's phone company.

In 1995, he and his wife opened a joint bank account in Singapore to store the amount earned from commissions and also the money he had kept earlier at a Hong Kong bank. He later transferred $250,000 from the Singapore bank to a bank in London.

Between 1996 and 2004, Naser spent $150,000 for treatment of his now deceased mother.

According to his confession, he received $150,000 from WorldTel Bangladesh Chief Executive Officer Nayeem Mehtab Chowdhury in 2004 and deposited the amount with the Singapore bank.

Expenses excluded, the account presently stands at $120,000.

Last year, he bought a Rajuk-authorised land for Tk 52 lakh, and over the past five years, he bought a Range Rover, two Pajeros, one BMW, and a Lexus.

Naser told the interrogators that he purchased savings certificates worth Tk 27 lakh in 1994 and has invested Tk 40 lakh in Universal Label Company. He also owns an apartment at Gulshan valued around Tk 77 lakh and a five-bigha land in Gazipur.

The former lawmaker said he had set up a fund at his constituency in Moulvibazar where the contractors would donate five percent of what they would earn from local contracts. The money was meant to be spent on party activities, such as meetings, rallies and processions.

Together with his uncle Zahirul Haque, he has $300,000 invested in Smart Investments Ltd. He earned $200,000 of the sum for facilitating the sale of Motorola products to Pan Pakistan Mobile Phone Company.

He, however, denied allegations that he purchased government land in Moulvibazar, or took Tk 30 lakh in bribe from Dr Dilshad to recommend her for the Moulvibazar reserved seat for women in parliament. He said the then prime minister Khaleda Zia chose Dilshad's sister for the seat.

BABAR AND THE MRP PROJECT
In his confession, Naser said Khaleda Zia gave her nod to the Tk 1,500-crore project on recommendation of a cabinet sub-committee. Originally, the project was for the machine-readable passports (MRP) and estimated to cost Tk 100 crore.

But Babar had the work of national ID cards included in it and the project cost rose to a staggering Tk 1,500 crore.

Naser said such a huge project requires the approval of the Ecnec and specific allocation in the national budget. But Babar persuaded the high-ups to bend the rules and had a tender invited for the project. He presented his favored company as the only bidder, though 32 other companies participated in the primary bidding.

But as there was no approval from the Ecnec, the purchase committee ordered a short-tender for the MRPs, said Naser.

He added that Babar himself owned up to his ill attempt at the purchase committee meeting and later withdrew his proposal.