Passport official in Bogura ‘on leave’ after ACC files case
The assistant director (AD) of Bogura regional passport office went on a leave after Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed a case against him for issuing passport to an Indian national.
Due to this, issuance of new machine-readable passports (MRP) has stopped since the last two days, causing sufferings to people.
Other office officials cannot contact him as the phone number of AD Md Abzaul Alam is switched off for the last two days.
Contacted, Shahidul Islam, superintendent of Bogura regional passport office, said, "We got around 250 new passports in last two days, but we can't deliver them without the AD's signature; we can't contact him over phone."
AD Abzaul Alam has been on a four-day casual leave since Sunday. He's supposed to join the office on Thursday, Shahidul said.
Another official, seeking anonymity, said, "We're not sure whether the AD will return to office, as we heard that ACC filed a case against him."
"We informed the matter to the Dhaka head office," he said.
This correspondent tried several times to contact the AD over phone, but his phone was indeed switched off.
AD Abzaul joined the Bogura office on February 9 this year. On March 12, ACC filed a case with its Rajshahi office against him for giving passport to an Indian national.
Mamunur Rashid Chowdhury, AD of ACC Dhaka and plaintiff of the case, said the case was filed on Thursday against Abzaul, six other passport officials and Indian citizen Hafez Ahmed.
According to the case statement, Abzaul, who was the then AD of Rajshahi passport office, and other accused provided a Bangladeshi passport to Hafez illegally by hiding and altering relevant documents for personal gain in 2017. After issuing the passport, they destroyed all documents.
Later, Hafez went to Saudi Arabia in 2018 and did not come back ever since. "We have information that there are cases filed against Hafez in India, but we are still unaware of the type of cases," said Mamunur.
Abdul Rashed, a passport seeker waiting at the office premises, said, "I came here to receive my passport, as it showed it's ready for delivery online, but I still couldn't get it yet."
Others echoed Abdul's experience. Mehedi Hasan of Bogura Sadar upazila said, "I have applied for an emergency passport almost one and half months ago. I came here to receive it today [yesterday], but couldn't get it, as I couldn't find anyone at the counter."
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