Two more EC staffers held in NID forgery case
Officials of Counter Terrorism (CT) unit of Chattogram Metropolitan Police yesterday arrested two more staff members of the Election Commission, in a case filed over National Identity (NID) scam involving Rohingyas.
The arrestees are Md Anwar Hossain, 45, of Noakhali and Abul Khair Bhuiyan, 45, of Cumilla, said police.
The court of Metropolitan Magistrate Sarwar Jahan placed the duo on a seven-day remand each, after they were produced before it, said Kazi Shahabuddin Ahmed, assistant commissioner (prosecution) of CMP.
Anwar is the office assistant of Chattogram’s Mirsarai upazila election office while Abul Khair is the office assistant of Bandar Thana office. They were arrested from their port city residences.
So far, 10 persons including eight EC staffers have been arrested in the case, filed with Kotwali Police Station on September 17.
Investigation Officer of the case Inspector Rajesh Barua of CT unit said, “Their names came to light in the confessional statements of three arrested EC staffers -- Joynal, Mostafa Faruk and Shah Nur Mia.”
Joynal used to be office assistant at Chattogram EC office, Faruk technical expert while Shah Nur technical expert of EC Headquarters, said investigators. They gave confessional statements before a court under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Joynal is the ringleader of a NID forgery gang while Shah Nur allegedly ran another group from Dhaka, said police.
In the confessional statements, the accused mentioned names of several top election officials and their associates who knew about the forgery, and disclosed how it had been committed in a well-organised manner, said investigators.
On September 15, Anti-Corruption Commission found that using official devices, several syndicates provided Bangladeshi NID to Rohingyas through forgery in exchange of huge amount of money, using the official computers.
ACC said several laptops of EC, directly connected to NID server, were stolen and the EC has no official data about the missing laptops yet.
Police and passport officials said some Rohingya refugees were making Bangladeshi passports using forged NID cards with the help of some locals and Rohingya brokers.
The Rohingyas were using fake names and addresses while applying for the identification documents. EC officials still cannot say exactly how many Rohingyas have availed the cards through the illegal means.
After the incident, Double Mooring Thana Election Officer Pallabi Chakma filed the case accusing five people and several unknown in connection with the forgery.
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