The Anti-Corruption Commission on Tuesday filed cases against former railway minister Suranjit Sengupta’s sacked assistant personal secretary Omar Faruq Talukder and suspended railway general manager Yusuf Ali Mridha for on charge of possessing illegal wealth.
The commission’s assistant director Rashedur Reza filed the case against Omar Faruq and deputy director Rezaul Hasan Tarafdar filed the case against Yusuf with the Raman police, said the officer-in-charge of the police station.
Omar Faruq was accused of possessing illegal wealth of about Tk 40,09,910, which was disproportionate with his legal sources of income, and hiding information of his wealth of Tk 17,34,910 in his wealth statement submitted to the commission.
Yusuf Ali was accused of possessing illegal wealth of about Tk 1.04 crore, which was disproportionate with his legal sources of income, and hiding information of his wealth of Tk 2,43,000 in his wealth statement submitted to the commission.
According to Section 26 and 27 of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2004, a person can be jailed for three years for hiding information in the wealth statement and for three to 10 years for possessing illegal wealth.
On April 9, Faruq's driver Ali Azam drove a microbus carrying the former APS, and two railway officials – Yusuf Ali Mridha and Enamul Huq – straight into the Border Guard Bangladesh headquarters in the capital and shouted at the guards that there was illegal money in the vehicle.
BGB personnel searched the vehicle and found Tk 70 lakh in cash, reportedly collected from new recruits in
railway's east zone, stashed in the vehicle. They detained the four but released them the next day after verifying their identity.
Faruq was sacked, and railway general manager (east zone) Mridha and its divisional security commandant Enamul Huq were suspended after the incident.
Taking responsibility for the incident, Suranjit stepped down as railway minister on April 16. But the government retained him as a minister without portfolio.
After the incident, the commission on May 14 notified Omar Faruq, Yusuf Ali Mridha, his wife Yasmin Zakaria Nargis, Enamul Huq and his wife Rahat Ara Huq asking for their wealth reports.
The five submitted their wealth reports to the commission on June 3.
The commission had also interrogated Omar Faruq, Yusuf Ali and Enamul on several occasions.
Meanwhile, the ACC secretary Faizur Rahman Chowdhury briefed reporters about the monthly activities of the graft watchdog body at its media center on Tuesday.
He said the commission had submitted 43 charge sheets to the court in July against 89 people for their alleged involvement in corruption.
Among the graft suspects, 42 are government officials, five public representatives and five businessmen.
The commission had approved filing of 39 cases against 102 graft suspects in July. Of them, 34 are government officials, one public representative and five businessmen. It also gave approval to charge sheets in 38 cases and settled two cases.
The ACC also received 1,147 graft allegations during the period. It accepted 61 allegations for investigation and 28 other allegations were sent to the ministries and departments concerned for necessary actions.