Tac hearing begins tomorrow

The Truth and Accountability Commission (Tac) gets down to hearing pleas of the corrupt persons seeking clemency in return for their ill-gotten wealth tomorrow.
On the opening day, the three-member commission, headed by Justice Habibur Rahman Khan, will hear seven applications for clemency in what happens to be the first of this kind of quasi-judicial dispute resolution.
About the duration of hearing of a case, a well-placed Tac source told the UNB that the hearing might conclude in a day if the commission is convinced that the person concerned furnished accurate information and his/her statements match with the documents sent by referring agencies like the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) or the National Coordination Committee (NCC) on serious crime and corruption.
If the Tac decides to grant clemency to a person, he or she would be asked to deposit his ill-gotten wealth with Bangladesh Bank, the source said. Then the corrupt would be able to collect the 'certificate of clemency'.
About the hearings of other cases received by the commission, the source said that arrangements are being made for hearing all other cases.
The Tac, since its inception about a month ago amid the ongoing anti-corruption purge, has so far received 182 cases involving 184 individuals. Among them, 170 are government servicemen, 10 are wives of some of them and two businessmen.
Significantly, not a single politician has applied so far to the commission for clemency. Many of them, however, have been booked on graft charges under the crackdown following the 1/11 changeover.
Given the overall poor responses, the deadline for clemency applications has been extended to September 30 instead of September 1.