Tk 34.89 crore graft case: Court relief for former DSCC mayor Khokon
A Dhaka court today relieved Dhaka South City Corporation former mayor Sayeed Khokon and six others from corruption charges over alleged embezzlement of Tk 34.89 crore.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury passed the order, accepting a probe report by the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI), a staffer of the court concerned told The Daily Star.
In the probe report submitted on May 9 this year, PBI inspector AZM Moniruzzaman said the charges against Sayeed Khokon and other accused were not found true during the investigation.
On December 29, 2020, Delwar Hossain, president of the Traders-Owners Association of Fulbaria City Supermarket-2 in the capital's Gulistan, filed the case with the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Ashek Imam.
The next day, the magistrate directed the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) to submit a probe report before the court by January 31, 2021 after an investigation into the case.
Yusuf Ali Sardar, former chief revenue officer of the city corporation, Md Mazed, former deputy assistant engineer of the city corporation, and their assistants Kamrul Hasan, Helena Akter, Atiqur Rahman Swapan and Md Walid were also made accused in the case.
According to the case document, Khokon and six others conspired with one another and built shops, violating the main design of Fulbaria City Supermarket-2. The accused then announced the allotment of the shops.
When the traders approached the DSCC, former mayor Khokon contacted the other accused and asked them to allot the shops, the case statement said.
The traders then communicated with accused Kamrul, Helena, Swapan and Walid for getting the allotment of shops.
In the case statement, the complainant mentioned that the accused took around Tk 34.89 crore from the complainant and 26 other traders in the name of "allocating shops at the market's blocks -- A, B & C between June 21, 2015, and September 29, 2019.
"But now, the shops are being demolished for violating the original design of the market," reads the case statement.
On December 8, 2020, the DSCC knocked down several hundred illegal shops at the Fulbaria Supermarket-2, which were built violating the main design of the supermarket.
Traders and shop owners protested the DSCC move that day.
DSCC officials initially faced obstruction from shopkeepers when they went to demolish the illegal parts of the supermarket. Shopkeepers threw brick chunks from inside the market at the DSCC team. Police fired teargas canisters to bring the situation under control.
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