Sacked officer of insurance development authority gets 5yrs in jail for taking bribe

A Dhaka court today sentenced Mohammad Abdul Motaleb, a junior officer who was discharged from Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA), to five years' imprisonment for taking Tk 1.5 lakh as bribe.

Judge Sheikh Hafizur Rahman of the Special Judge Court-9 of Dhaka handed down the sentence in absence of the convict.

The judge also fined him Tk 50,000 in default of which he will have to spend one more month in jail.

The punishment of the fugitive will be effective from the day of his arrest or surrender, the judge added.

According to the prosecution, it has been alleged that on July 21, 2013 a team of IDRA led by Motaleb visited the office of Reliance Insurance Ltd at Bijoynagar and found some irregularities. Later, Motaleb demanded Tk 2.5 lakh as bribe from Branch Manager Mohsin Hossain and if the manager failed to give that amount Motaleb threatened to report the irregularities to the Insurance head office.

The manager agreed to give Tk 1.5 lakh and also managed to inform it to the Anti-Corruption Commission. On August 5, that same year the manager along with a team of ACC members went to Hotel Purbani in Motijheel and gave the money to Motaleb.

Soon after taking the bribe, Motaleb was caught red-handed with the money and the ACC Assistant Director Fazlul Haque filed a case against Motaleb with Motijheel Police Station the same day. He went into hiding after getting bail from the High Court.

After an investigation, ACC Deputy Director Abdul Kader Bhuiyan pressed charges against Motaleb on March 16 of 2014.