BNP trio sued again for graft

The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday filed three more cases against the speaker, deputy speaker and chief whip of the immediate past parliament on charges that the trio made unauthorised use of government vehicles.
The accused are former speaker and BNP standing committee member Jamiruddin Sircar, deputy speaker Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui, and chief whip Khandaker Delwar Hossain, secretary general of the party.
Earlier on December 28 last year, the ACC filed five cases against Sircar, Delwar, Akhtar Hamid, and Ashraful Islam, former chief accounts officer at the parliament secretariat on charges of misappropriation of public funds and property during the BNP-led four-party rule.
ACC Chairman Golam Rahman told The Daily Star yesterday, "We received some major allegations from the parliament secretariat against some former lawmakers one year ago. We have investigated those and filed the cases."
Sircar, allegedly used three vehicles in addition to his entitlement and took about Tk 40.93 lakh as additional fuel allowances in between 2001 and 2008.
Akhtar Hamid used two vehicles and took around Tk 58.71 lakh, while Delwar used one vehicle and took about Tk 36 lakh as fuel allowances allegedly in addition to their entitlement.
Akhtar allegedly used the government vehicles even for the then BNP senior secretary general Tarique Rahman's political tours and took fuel allowances for that.
A parliamentary body investigating alleged irregularities of the trio also recommended that the House recover Tk 1.33 crore from them and deposit it to the national exchequer.
ACC Deputy Director Akhteruzzaman filed the three cases with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station in the capital.
Delwar told The Daily Star yesterday, "We will go to the court for justice. The government is harassing us in different ways including filing cases against BNP leaders."
The anti-graft body conducted the investigation on the basis of a parliamentary panel's probe report against the three.
Placed before the House on July 9 last year, the probe report said Sircar and Delwar also drew about Tk 27.86 lakh and Tk 6 lakh as medical allowances.
The ACC filed cases against 45 politicians including these three high profile BNP leaders from January 1 to November 30 last year, sources say.
As many as 778 people were accused including 434 government employees, 82 private sector employees and 32 businessmen during the period.