Govt official, three others sued in Ctg
Chittagong police have sued four people including a government official for receiving Tk 19 crore fund from London for their alleged attempt to strengthen militancy in Bangladesh.
The case was filed with Kotwali Police Station on Monday nearly five months after Bangladesh Tariqat Federation Chairman and lawmaker Nazibul Bashar Maijbhandari had filed a general diary with the station alleging that the fund was brought to intensify militant activities.
The accused are Abul Kalam Azad, assistant director of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education; Shahjahan Maijbhandari, general secretary of Maijbhandar Sharif Shahi Mosque regulatory committee; Syed Mohammad Sahibul Alam, its cashier; and one Rakib.
Kotwali police Inspector (investigation) Nezam Uddin on Wednesday sent the first information report (FIR) to the Anti-Corruption Commission in Chittagong to investigate the matter.
According to the case statement, Shahjahan Maijbhandari and Sahibul Alam opened a joint account on May 7 this year with Janata Bank, Laldighi Branch in the name of the mosque regulatory committee.
In this regard, they submitted a copy of a letter of Nazibul, also president of the committee, that permitted them to open the bank account.
On May 17, Nazibul, a lawmaker of Chittagong-2 constituency, lodged the GD with the police station saying that his signature was forged in that letter.
Following the GD, police conducted an investigation.
The cheque of a UK-based bank in London for Tk 19 crore was of one Alamgir, the case statement said.
Talking to The Daily Star, Chittagong ACC director Abdul Aziz Bhuiyan said the cheque bounced after it had been deposited into the account of Janata Bank.
The names of Azad and Rakib were included in the case as during preliminary interrogation, Shahjahan told police that they were involved in it.
Contacted, Shahjahan denied the allegations of forging the signature of Nazibul and involving in any sort of militant funding.
He said he met Azad through one of his friends.
“One day, Azad proposed collecting some funds from abroad saying that there are some donors who wanted to donate to mosques, madrasas and orphanages,” he said, adding that then Azad gave him the cheque and advised him to open an account.
Nezam requested the ACC to investigate and make sure whether Azad, and Rakib, whose identity could not be known, were involved in it.
However, Inspector Nezam quoted Azad as saying he was not involved in such activities.
Sahibul is on the run, Nezam said.
Meanwhile, Md Shafi, a member of the mosque regulatory committee, told The Daily Star that Shahjahan admitted to them that he forged the lawmaker's signature and sought pardon for this.
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