It's a drama

BNP yesterday termed “nothing but a drama” the attorney general's handing over of a cheque for a portion of money that was laundered by Arafat Rahman Koko, younger son of party Chairperson Khaleda Zia.
"The government staged the drama to bring up new issues and divert people's attention from the opposition movement demanding the restoration of the caretaker government," said BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
Through a press conference at the party's Nayapaltan headquarters, Fakhrul shared his party's thoughts about the programme in which the dummy cheque was handed over to the Anti-Corruption Commission.
Since November last year, the ACC has brought back in three instalments around Tk 21 crore that Koko and his associates had siphoned off to Singapore.
The ACC received Tk 7.40 crore, the last instalment, on August 13, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told reporters after handing over the cheque for the amount at the multi-agency training programme on asset recovery.
At the programme on Tuesday, representative from Singapore's attorney general's office Paul Chia presented a case study on how the laundered money had been sent back to Bangladesh.
Koko had received the money as bribe for securing contracts for China Harbour Engineering Co and Siemens.
Fakhrul went on, “The attorney general handed over the big cheque to the ACC in a way that resembles a cricket player receiving a cheque after a cricket match.
“It tarnished the image of Koko and the BNP.”
Fakhrul also remarked that the cases filed against Koko and BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman were politically motivated.
He alleged that the government had withdrawn “all the cases” against ruling party leaders and activists but not a single one against those of the opposition.
Fakhrul's comment on the handover of the cheque is a repeat of what he said in November last year, when the ACC had received the first instalment from the Singaporean government.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam yesterday lambasted Fakhrul for calling the handover of the cheque a drama.
"We have recovered the money through the verdicts of Bangladeshi and Singaporean courts and with assistance from different countries of the world," the lawyer told private television channel Ekattor TV.
It was unfortunate that Fakhrul had made the comments, he observed, adding that Fakhrul wanted to prove wrong the court verdicts and all other things centring the issue to satisfy "a family”.
Ruling Awami League acting general secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif said the government had no scope to spread confusion over the corruption charges against the two sons of Khaleda Zia, as those had been proved by US and Singaporean courts.
“It was neither the Awami League nor the government that had pressed charges against them,” he told a press conference at the AL president's political office in Dhanmondi yesterday.
Criticising Fakhrul's comment on the return of Tk 7.40 crore, Hanif said the BNP leader had made this statement only to “save his skin and kowtow to Khaleda Zia's family”.