The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), led by its former chairman Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah, was involved in various corruption and irregularities during his service, with the help of two former commissioners: Jahurul Haque and Asia Khatun.
The ACC led by Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah was busy with small corruptions. The anti-graft body didn’t file a case or investigate against corrupted persons without permission from the then Sheikh Hasina government. The biggest scandal of the ACC was the fake investigation report of the state-owned BASIC Bank. The then ACC approved chargesheets of the case by dropping the names of masterminds of the BASIC Bank scandal. Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah, Jahurul Haque, and Asia Khatun were behind the report, said the ACC sources.
The sources said Commissioner Jahurul Haque has allegedly taken various illegal benefits from the ACC including taking bills by providing fake vouchers of his son’s hospital. He also managed a Rajuk plot taking advantage of power. The Ministry of Home has already taken the initiative to cancel his passport and issue a travel ban.
The investigation concerned of the BASIC Bank scam said the board of the bank had approved the loans which were defaulted. Surprisingly, no one on the board was accused in the case. The Moinuddin’s commission made the members of the board as witnesses of the case to take personal bonanza from them. His commission didn’t analyse those accounts of loans that were credited and didn’t identify where the money from loans had been handed over by showing fake documents. Even the issue of money laundering was absent in the Basic Bank case.
In 2023, the Anti-Corruption Commission submitted the chargesheets to the court against the former chairman of BASIC Bank Sheikh Abdul Hye Bachchu and 146 others in 59 cases filed over the embezzlement of Tk2,265 crore through loan scams. Of the 147 accused, 46 are officials of the BASIC Bank and 101 are customers.
Officials of the ACC alleged that although the anti-graft body is an independent organization in black and white, it didn’t begin any investigation against corrupt persons without a green signal from the Sheikh Hasina-led government. The then-ruling government had always been using the ACC as a weapon of the party. As a result, corruption and irregularities grabbed the ACC.
According to multiple ACC directors and its director general, the ACC was free to catch small corruption. But, it couldn’t take action against the big fishes who embezzled tens of thousands of crore Taka. Sometimes, it launched investigations against a few big corrupt people being instructed by the Hasina government and stopped the probe mid-way. As a result, the ACC faced an image crisis.
On the other hand, several media outlets have published reports about the huge wealth of former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed and his wife Rukmila Zaman in the United States, the United Kingdom and Dubai. According to the media reports, Saifuzzaman Chowdhury and Rukmila Zaman have huge deposits at various banks abroad. However, they didn’t get permission from the Bangladesh Bank to deposit money abroad.
On March 4 this year, documents of the money laundering of Saifuzzaman Chowdhury were sent to the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), ACC, Criminal Investigation Department (CID), National Board of Revenue (NBR), and the office of the attorney general from the Transparency International UK and Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB). But the ACC led by Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah didn’t take any action in this regard. After the fall of Sheikh Hasina on August 5, BFIU instructed the banks to seize the accounts of Saifuzzaman Chowdhury and his family members. Later, the ACC decided to investigate this. The ACC remained silent about the Islami Bank occupied by the S Alam Group in 2017. However, it has launched an investigation following the fall Hasina government.
Contacted, TIB Executive Director and Chief of the ACC Reform Commission Dr Iftekharuzzaman told Bangladesh Pratidin that the ACC had been used as a weapon and safeguard of the Sheikh Hasina government. It (ACC) didn’t take action against anyone in the government despite having specific information which expanded the corruption. For this reason, the ACC needs reformation like other organizations.
Officials at the ACC said the commission chairman and two commissioners take all decisions. None including investigation officers and the director general couldn’t make a single decision of launching any investigation.
Sources said the ACC filed cases against many officials for using government cars for personal purposes. Interestingly, ACC commissioner Jahurul Haque, his wife and children have used a government car along with driver Saddam Hossain besides his allotted car since April 2021. He used the car a month more after his resignation. The former ACC commissioner used to take Tk 1.5 lakh treatment bills monthly by submitting fake vouchers of Badda’s AMZ Hospital, owned by his son.
This correspondent tried to contact Jahurul Haque over the phone and sent messages. But he didn’t answer.
ACC sources said the anti-graft body filed a case against two officials of Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) allegedly for using a government car in personal interest last year. The ACC former official did the same offence.
On the other hand, Jahurul Haque and his spouse Masuma Begum took two separate Rajuk plots of 5 kathas at Purbachal New Town. As per the rules, if multiple members of a family were allotted plots, all plots except one had to be handed over to Rajuk. Jahurul Haque didn’t submit it. In addition, he took another plot of 10 kathas instead of two separate plots.
Former Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Chairman Jahurul Haque joined the ACC as a commissioner on March 10, 2021. His tenure was scheduled to end on March 9, 2025. He retired from the job of Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge on December 4, 2014.
bd-pratidin/GR
