Graft charges against ex-BNP MP Shahidul 'correct'

Sahidul Islam

Another team from the National Coordination Committee Against Major Corruption and Crime (NCCACC) during investigation in Kushtia yesterday found correct the allegations of corruption against former BNP lawmaker Sahidul Islam, now on the run.
The five-member team comprising two army officers and officials from the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) and district administration visited his houses in Bheramara town, checked documents at local land offices and other government offices and talked to officials and others concerned. They measured all his three houses in the upazila town.
After the day-long probe, sources close to the team told this correspondent that they found the allegations against the former lawmaker correct.
This was the second probe by NCCACC into alleged corruption by Shahidul in about a month. Another team visited Kushtia and probed allegations last month. It seized some documents and had said that the allegations were correct.
Shahidul, also president of Kushtia district BNP, is on the ACC list of top 20 'corruption suspects' announced in March this year.
Once an influential BNP leader in the district, Shahidul is on the run since proclamation of emergency.
The sources said yesterday's visit was to doubly probe the allegations and verify his wealth statement submitted to ACC by his wife on September 6.
The team also checked his moveable and immovable assets and measured the BNP leader's house in the town.
It also checked property of Sahidul's younger brother Touhidul Islam Alam, chairman of Bheramara municipality. Touhidul is detained.
The team visited some government establishments built by construction firms owned by Shahidul's close relatives.
Law enforcing agencies raided his house several times but could not arrest him, police said earlier.
Sahidul faces 11 cases for alleged involvement in murder, extortion, vandalising opposition rallies and torturing journalists.
Most of the cases were filed after expiry of tenure of the BNP-Jamaat government. Seven of the cases were filed on February 12 this year.
Police so far submitted charge sheet in only one case regarding attack on a journalist's convention in Kushtia on May 29, last year, in which Sahidul was the prime accused.
Police said the rest cases are being investigated.
The sources said the team found correct several allegations of his corruption including misappropriation of Tk 12 lakh from salary of teachers of Bheramara Adarsha Degree College, running construction firms in the name of his wife and daughter to grab government project work and occupying sand quarries in Padma river.
Sahidul misappropriated Tk 12 lakh of teachers' salary when he was president of the college governing body in 2002. A case in this regard is pending with a Kushtia magistrate court.
The most glaring example of his cheating is use of a fake Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC), the sources said.
A probe body headed by the then Deputy Commissioner of Kushtia during investigation found that Sahidul's HSC certificate was fake.
He got admitted to Zoology department in Rajshahi University by suing the fake certificate, completed Masters and joined as lecturer at Bheramara Adarsha Degree College. He was however, removed from the job later.
According to sources, at least Tk 600 crore were sanctioned for development projects in Mirpur-Bheramara upazilas during last five years of BNP rule. Most of the projects were implemented by firms owned by his close relatives.
According to the wealth statement submitted to ACC by his wife, Sahidul has 1, 087 decimal of land and two 8.25 decimal plots--one in the capital's Uttra area and the other in Kushtia.