Minu sued for hiding wealth

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in Rajshahi yesterday sued Rajshahi City Corporation Mayor Mizanur Rahman Minu and his wife Salma Shahadat for illegally accumulating wealth worth over Tk 3 crore and concealing information on their wealth statements.
In Dhaka, the ACC pressed charges against former Awami League (AL) lawmaker Dr HBM Iqbal, four of his family members and detained former BNP lawmaker M Naser Rahman and his wife in connection with graft cases filed for concealing wealth in their statements.
Meanwhile, the hearing on the seven-day remand prayer to interrogate Tarique Rahman, detained senior joint secretary general of BNP, in connection with a case filed for extorting Tk 81 lakh from a businessman, is scheduled for today in his presence.
A Dhaka court yesterday issued arrest warrant against former AL lawmaker Habibur Rahman Mollah as National Board of Revenue (NBR) filed a tax evasion case against him.
Our Rajshahi correspondent reports: M Monirul Haque, deputy director of Rajshahi ACC, filed the case against Minu and his wife with Boalia Model Police Station yesterday evening.
The case statement said ACC investigators found that Minu accumulated around Tk 2.27 crore worth of illegal wealth and concealed around Tk 1.92 crore on his wealth statement that he had submitted to the ACC.
Illegal wealth accumulated by his wife, a lecturer in a college, is around Tk 71 lakh and her concealed wealth is around Tk 5.1 lakh.
Besides, the investigators detected that Minu, under the name of Bairul Islam, made a secret investment of Tk 1.80 crore in a business named Jamuna Seeds Storage Private Limited.
Lutfar Rahman, a business associate of Minu and former president of Rajshahi Chamber of Commerce and Industries, in a judicial confession in August stated that Minu used to run different businesses under false names, added the case statement.
IQBAL CASE
Investigation Officer (IO) Mohammad Helal Uddin Sharif, assistant director of ACC, submitted the charge sheet against HBM Iqbal to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's (CMM) Court, Dhaka showing 25 people as prosecution witnesses.
The other accused on the charge sheet are Iqbal's wife Dr Momtaj Begum Dolly, their sons Moinuddin Iqbal, Imran Iqbal and daughter Nawrin Iqbal.
Showing all the accused fugitives, the IO prayed for issuance of arrest warrants against them and order to attach their properties.
ACC Assistant Director Mohammad Ibrahim on June 25 filed the case against them with Gulshan Police Station for amassing huge wealth, worth Tk 11.43 crore, through corruption and for concealing assets in their wealth statements submitted to the ACC on February 26.
Iqbal has been on the run since February after the launch of countrywide anti-corruption drives against high-profile corruption suspects. Although the corruption watchdog asked him to submit his wealth statement in person, his representative submitted the statement on his behalf in February to the ACC as an HC order permitted him to do so.
In the statement it was mentioned that cash and assets worth Tk 38 crore belonged to the Iqbal couple.
The ACC investigators however detected concealment of information on the statement as the wealth mentioned on it did not add up to his known sources of income.
According to the case statement, Iqbal illegally acquired a Tk 5.3-crore house, registered under his wife's name, on Gulshan Avenue. Besides, he has a fixed deposit of Tk 5 crore in a bank account. He did not mention any of these in his wealth statement.
NASER CASE
The IO of the case, Deputy Director Golam Shahriar Chowdhury of ACC, submitted the charge sheet to the CMM's Court against Naser, son of former finance minister M Saifur Rahman, and Naser's wife Rezina Naser, showing 44 people as prosecution witnesses.
The IO prayed for issuance of arrest warrant against Rezina and order to attach her properties as she has been a fugitive since the case was filed against her.
In the case filed with Gulshan Police Station on May 27, it was alleged that Naser and his wife had concealed Tk 6.23 crore in their wealth statements submitted earlier to the ACC.
TARIQUE CASE
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Shawkat Ali Chowdhury on November 15 fixed today for the hearing following the prayer submitted by Sub-Inspector Aminur Rashid of Gulshan Police Station for taking Tarique on remand for interrogation.
Earlier on Thursday, two Dhaka courts, considering Tarique's ill health, rejected 14 days' remand prayers on different dates to interrogate him in two extortion cases filed with Gulshan and Dhanmondi police stations.
In the forwarding report, the IO mentioned that Giasuddin Al Mamun in his confessional statement on May 5 said that Tarique and he were involved in the extortion of Tk 81 lakh from a businessman. Therefore, Tarique has to be quizzed to find out about their accomplices and the status of the extorted money, the IO added.
On March 27, Harun Ferdousi, managing director of Judge Distilleries Ltd, filed the case against Tarique, Mamun and three others.
The case statement said that out of the Tk 81 lakh, Tarique received Tk 45 lakh, Mamun Tk 35 lakh and the three others shared Tk 1 lakh.
Tarique was arrested on March 7 from his mother's cantonment residence in Dhaka following filing of an extortion case against him.
CASE AGAINST HABIBUR
Judge Mohammad Azizul Haque of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court passed the arrest warrant against Habibur Rahman Mollah after a deputy tax commissioner of NBR filed the case for evading Tk 45.41 lakh during fiscal years 1996 through 2007.