ACC finds ex-govt officer, wife to be owning 27 flats, 12 plots

The Anti-Corruption Commission has found a suspended deputy manager of the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh and his wife to have illegally acquired property worth Tk 43.17 crore.

The property includes 27 apartments and 12 residential plots in the capital and five shops in the New Market.

Mohammad Arshad Hossain, the deputy manager of the state-owned power transmission company who was suspended in 2010 on charges of embezzling Tk 30 core, bought the plots and apartments in posh areas such as Dhanmondi, Gulshan, Baridhara, Banani, New Eskaton and Mohammadpur.

The commission has found the property owned by Arshad and his wife Nubna Islam Lani after the Bangladesh Bank's deputy general manager (money laundering prevention department) had complained that the couple had an unusual transaction in their accounts with the HSBC branch at Banani.

'The commission has recently approved the charge sheet against the couple,' the commission's chair Ghulam Rahman told New Age.

The commission's assistant director Mohammad Ibrahim lodged a case with the Dhanmondi police on April 19, accusing the couple of laundering Tk 28.84 crore between 2006 and April 2011.

After the investigation, Ibrahim, who is also the investigation officer of the case, found that the couple had acquired property worth Tk 43.17 crore.

According to the investigation, Arshad owns property worth more than Tk 24 crore and his wife owns property worth more than Tk 16 crore. The couple have Tk 4 crore with different bank accounts, which have now been frozen.

The investigation also found that Arshad had submitted a return on his income of Tk 33.95 lakh in the 2009–2010 tax year. In the return, Arshad said that he had inherited five bighas of land.

Arshad's wife, however, has a tax identification number but she did not submit any return, the investigation found.

According to the investigation officer, the couple were asked to submit their statements by appearing in person about the complaints but they did not do so.  

Ibrahim said that he would submit the charge sheet in a day or two showing the couple absconding in the case. 

Source : New Age