ACC approves charges against ex-diplomat

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday approved charge-sheet of a case filed over misappropriation of Tk 2.6 crore by Maksud Khan, former councillor of Bangladesh High Commission in Canada.

The case was filed with Shahbagh Police Station on December 13, 2017, said ACC’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya. The charge-sheet will be submitted before court soon, he added.

According to the case statement, Maksud siphoned off the amount, equivalent to 4,12,382 Canadian dollars from government-allocated fund for the Machine-Readable Passport (MRP) project.

He also took 320 Canadian dollars (about  Tk 20,128) from one Khalid Hasan as passport fees. Khalid sent the money to Maksud’s account.

ACC Deputy Director Manzur Alam investigated it.

Meanwhile, ACC yesterday suspended Assistant Director Md Saiduzzaman for “misconduct” and “negligence in duty”.

ACC Chairman Iqbal Mahmud made a surprise visit at the commission’s complain hotline centre around 2pm, where he found Saiduzzaman absent without prior permission.

He immediately asked the respective official to take action against Saiduzzaman.