Allegations have surfaced suggesting that the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has been used to target government opponents. Reports claim that former ACC chairman, commissioners, and officials were involved in money laundering activities.
Experts are urging for an investigation into the involvement of these former officials and suggest that they should be banned from leaving the country. This comes amid growing concerns over the ACC's role in alleged political suppression.
The ACC has previously filed numerous corruption cases against opposition figures, including BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, and party leaders, including Tarique Rahman and his wife Zubaida Rahman. These figures were sentenced to prison terms, with the BNP insisting that the charges were politically motivated.
Sources allege that during the tenure of previous governments, some ACC officials and former commissioners formed a syndicate to falsely implicate opposition leaders in corruption cases. Additionally, the group is accused of extorting large sums of money from businessmen through blackmail. Several ACC officials and a prominent lawyer have reportedly been implicated in this alleged scheme.
ACC officials said this is the first time in the country's history that the agency has launched an investigation into the corruption of an ACC commissioner. Former ACC commissioner Jahurul Haque has been accused of acquiring illegal wealth worth hundreds of crores of taka through bribery and corruption. His daughter lives in Australia. He laundered the illegal wealth he acquired while working for the BTRC and ACC.
Another commissioner, Asia Khatun's husband, has made a lot of illegal wealth through corruption. Commissioner Asia Khatun stopped the investigation into the illegal assets of PSC driver Abed Ali, who was involved in the question leak. Abed Ali knew Asia when she was the PSC secretary.
ACC Deputy Director Gulshan Anwar Pradhan and Supreme Court senior lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan helped former commissioners to give concessions to corrupt people in exchange for a large sum of money to stop the investigation.
When Jahurul Haque was the chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), there were allegations of fraud and bribery against him in the allocation of airwaves to various private televisions. Apart from this, the issue of his giving immoral benefits to various mobile companies is also very old.
He resigned from the post of ACC Commissioner on October 29. Jahurul was appointed as ACC Commissioner on March 2, 2021. He was the judge in the BDR murder case. One party is dissatisfied with the verdict in the BDR murder case.
They claim that the government has influenced the judges of the court and made a biased verdict in the case. In the meantime, the government has formed a new commission to reinvestigate the BDR killing. Due to this, Jahurul Haque has been banned from leaving the country.
On August 23, 2022, one and a half years after taking office as the former ACC Commissioner (Investigation), Jahurul Haque applied to the State Minister of Housing and Public Works Ministry to provide a 10-katha plot instead of the 5-katha plot allotted in his own name.
In view of that application, on November 3 of that year, the Ministry of Public Works wrote to the RAJUK Chairman asking him to allot a 10-katha plot subject to the surrender of Jahurul Haque 5-katha plot and his wife Machuda Begum's 5-katha plot.
According to the decision of the RAJUK board, Jahurul Haque was given plot number 47 of 10 katha area on road number 206 of sector number 25 under section 13/A. He took approval for the design to build a house there.
According to the law, separate plots cannot be allotted in the names of husband and wife. If separate plots are allotted in the names of husband and wife in any project, one plot must be retained and the other must be surrendered. There is a provision for filing a criminal case against a husband and wife if they take separate plots. But Jahurul Haque and his wife Machuda Begum have taken separate plots. However, they did not surrender a plot, and RAJUK did not cancel their allocation of a plot. On the contrary, Jahurul Haque used his influence as ACC Commissioner and got the 10 katha plot allotted.
Apart from this, as ACC Commissioner, Jahurul Haque was allotted a car for himself. But outside the allotted car, he illegally allotted another car with a driver for the full-time use of his wife and children. Jahurul Haque's private secretary applied to the ACC for the allocation of a car with a driver.
In that application, he said that Jahurul Haque lives in a government bungalow in Dhanmondi. He wants to be allocated another car with a driver in his favor. He will pay the government fee for the use of the car. There is a food and lodging arrangement for the driver at his residence. In view of the application, a letter was issued from the ACC head office allocating the car.
In that letter, it was said that as per the wishes of Commissioner Jahurul Haque, driver Saddam Hossain and Dhaka Metro-G42-7630 were allowed to use the car full-time. There was anger among many within the ACC over the matter. Because there is an extreme shortage of cars in the organization. Officers of the rank of Deputy Director share cars.
(Translated by Tanvir Raihan)
