ACC sues AL MP, 2 ex-state ministers
After probing for about seven months, the Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday sued an incumbent lawmaker and two former state ministers for amassing wealth illegally.
Awami League legislator Abdur Rahman Bodi, former state minister for water resources Mahbubur Rahman and ex-state minister for housing and public works Abdul Mannan Khan have been accused of concealing wealth information and discrepancies in their wealth statements and income tax returns.
ACC deputy directors Khairul Huda, Nasir Uddin and Abdus Subhan filed three cases with Ramna Police Station in this connection under the Anti-Corruption Commission Act, 2004.
If found guilty, the accused could face up to seven years, fines of unlimited amount and confiscation of their properties for the offence.
According to the case statement, lawmaker Abdur Rahman Bodi from Cox's Bazar-4 informed the ACC on March 20 that he along with his wife and children owned movable and immovable properties worth Tk 5.20 crore.
But his income tax return showed that the properties were worth Tk 16.06 crore till June 30 last year.
The lawmaker and his family members had only Tk 49 lakh in 2008 as per his wealth statement submitted to the Election Commission that year.
In his wealth statement submitted to the ACC, Bodi stated import business as his source of income, but he failed to produce any documents showing profit and loss of his business.
The case statement against ex-state minister Abdul Mannan Khan said he concealed information of his property worth Tk 4.59 lakh and he could not produce documents in favour of his income of Tk 75 lakh.
According to the income tax returns and other related documents of Mannan, he has movable properties worth Tk 96.89 lakh. But his wealth statement submitted to the ACC on March 9 stated that he owned movable properties worth Tk 92.30 lakh.
Former state minister for water resources Mahbubur Rahman, also an incumbent MP, amassed movable and immovable properties worth Tk 5.19 crore without any known income sources and concealed information of wealth worth Tk 1.24 crore, said the other case statement.
According to the affidavit submitted to the EC in 2008, Mahbubur had property worth only Tk 50 lakh, which shot up to Tk 6.35 crore as stated in the affidavit submitted last year.
The AL leader in his 2010-11 income tax return showed that he borrowed Tk 1 crore from his wife, but the latter's income tax return for the same fiscal mentioned that she earned only Tk 3.80 lakh, found the ACC probe.
Mahbubur also tried to establish that be borrowed Tk 50 lakh from one Bipul Hawlader in 2011-12 fiscal year, but Bipul's income tax return for that fiscal had no mention about it. Asked by the ACC, Bipul denied that he had lent the money to Mahbubur, added the case statement.
The accused even failed to produce any document against Tk 80 lakh that he claimed to have received as gifts at his daughter's marriage ceremony.
Following leads from newspaper reports, the anti-graft watchdog on January 22 opened preliminary investigations into corruption allegations against seven ministers and lawmakers of the ninth parliament, including the trio.
Probes against the rest of the suspects, including former health minister AFM Ruhal Haque, incumbent AL MP Aslamul Haque and former lawmakers Enamul Haque and Abdul Zabbar, have been at the final stage, said a top ACC official.
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