Court issues arrest warrant against 23

A Dhaka court yesterday issued arrest warrants against former commerce minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, former prime minister Khaleda Zia's political secretary Harris Chowdhury, Bashundhara Group Chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan Shah Alam and 20 others in a graft case.
The 23 along with former housing and public works minister Mirza Abbas and former Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) director Humayun Khan are accused of causing a loss of Tk 127.64 crore to the exchequer by selling 18 abandoned government houses at lower prices.
Abbas and Humayun are now in jail.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case against Abbas and 11 others on May 29. The names of Harris, Amir Khasru and 11 others were later included in the charge sheet as investigation found their involvement in the offence.
After scrutinising case dockets and other relevant documents, Judge Mohammad Azizul Haq of Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court accepted the charge sheet and issued the arrest warrants following a plea submitted by the investigation officer of the case.
The court directed the authorities concerned to send copies of the arrest warrants to the addresses of the fugitives.
On September 20, ACC Assistant Director Khairul Huda submitted the charge sheet against Mirza Abbas, Amir Khasru, Harris, three former secretaries and a number of high officials of Rajuk and Public Works Department (PWD).
Other accused from the Rajuk against whom arrest warrants were issued are Chief Engineer Reazul Manir, Secretary Mir Mosharraf Hossain, former director Golam Nabi, former member and present Civil Aviation and Tourism Secretary Shahid Alam, and officials Emdadul Hossain and Mohammad Ali.
The accused from the PWD are former PWD engineer Syed Mahfuz Ahmed, former secretary SM Jafrullah, official Ziauddin Ahmed and Purbachal Project Director Abdus Sadeque.
The rest are former lawmaker Kazi Anwar Hossain, former housing and public works secretary Iqbal Uddin Chowdhury, Managing Director of Cocola Foods Company Ltd Shukkur Miah, Chairman of Advanced Development Technologies Ltd SM Anwar Hossain, Chairman of MN Co Ltd Niu Ze Mendes, proprietor of Electro Mart Co Ltd Nurus Sofa, Matco Co Chairman Shafiqur Rahman Kiron, Chittagong Awami League leader Afsar Uddin's wife Hasna Ahmed, Ambia Group Managing Director Abul Kashem, former secretary general of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies Ali Haider Chowdhury and Mehedi Hasan of Orion Group.
According to the prosecution, Abbas told parliament on June 7 last year that in accordance with Bangladesh Abandoned Property (control, management and disposal) Order 1972, the housing ministry is authorised to control, manage and dispose of abandoned houses.
But before informing the House of the legal aspects, he had already ordered for measures to sell the abandoned houses. Accordingly, the Rajuk published a notice of auction for 10 abandoned houses in different national dailies on April 5, 2006.
They ultimately sold 18 houses located in posh areas like Gulshan, Banani, Dhanmondi and New Eskaton at a "fake auction" at prices much lower than the then market rates. The sale bypassing an open auction resulted in a loss of Tk 127.64 crore to the nation's coffers.
HEADMASTER SENT TO JAIL
The same court yesterday sent Anwar Hossain, headmaster of Tejgaon Community Centre Adarsha High School, to jail after he appeared before the court and sought bail in a case in connection with embezzlement of government relief materials.
The court also ordered attachment of properties of Anwaruzzaman, commissioner of Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) ward-40, and Sujat Ali, personal assistant of ward-37 Commissioner Ruhul Amin Bhuiyan, as they did not comply with court orders.
Anwar along with his lawyers appeared before the court and sought bail, saying he surrendered to the court after learning about the arrest warrant. His lawyers said the charges brought against Anwar were false, baseless and concocted.
The prosecution, however, opposed them and prayed for sending the teacher to jail as the court had no jurisdiction to grant bail to anybody accused of a graft case.
On September 17, ACC Assistant Director Sheikh Abdus Salam submitted the charge sheet against detained former BNP lawmaker Mossaddak Ali Falu, four DCC ward commissioners and 11 others.
Of them, Falu and Nazir Ahmed, MLSS of DCC ward-37, are now in jail.
On March 2, security personnel recovered 605 corrugated iron sheets and 63 blankets meant for relief from Ruhul Amin's office at Tejgaon.
CASE AGAINST SALAHUDDIN'S FAMILY
The same court directed the authorities concerned to publish advertisements in two national Bangla dailies asking detained former BNP lawmaker Salahuddin Ahmed's wife Shamsunnahar and son Imran Ahmed to appear before the court within three days in two cases filed for evading taxes.
National Board of Revenue (NBR) Additional Assistant Tax Commissioner SM Ibrahim filed the cases against them on September 16.
Shamsunnahar, director of ITS Enterprise Ltd, had dodged income taxes totalling Tk 21,32,178 between 2002 and 2007 while her son Imran evaded Tk 2,03,52,568 income taxes between 2002 and 2006.
Imran also concealed from the NBR information about his taxable income, earnings from sales of flats and shares, private car, money deposited in different banks and source of income.