Minister without portfolio Suranjit Sengupta has not been attending the cabinet meeting after he tendered his resignation letter as a railway minister on April 16, 2012.
According to the cabinet division officials, the minister was not invited to the cabinet meeting since the day he submitted his resignation letter.
The notices of the cabinet meeting are not being served to Suranjit Sengupta on the instruction of the prime minister.
Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan also confirmed the information
“The prime minister does not expect him in the cabinet meeting. The prime minister decides who to attend the cabinet meeting. It’s up to the discretion of the premier. We are following her directions,” he added.
He also said the rule allows the prime minister to invite anyone to the cabinet meeting. And according to the rules of business, a cabinet member must inform the cabinet division beforehand if he cannot attend the meeting.
Suranjit declined to make any comment when this correspondent tried to communicate with the minister over phone on Sunday.
Former Railway Minister Suranjit Sengupta resigned from the railway ministry on April 16, 2012 following a scandal linked to “bribe money,” only four months after taking office.
The veteran Awami League leader took the decision amid fierce criticism from both the ruling party and the opposition after the alleged bribe scam came to light.
After resigning from his ministry, the senior lawmaker from Sunamganj-2 constituency said he was resigning to set an example in the 40 years of the country’s history shouldering the blame for all “failures”.
Later he was made minister without portfolio.
The beleaguered former minister, well-known for his sharp tongue and rhetoric, denied accusations that the money recovered from a vehicle at the entrance to Bangladesh Border Guard (BGB) headquarters on April 9 night was bribes from job seekers applying for employment at the state-run Railway.
Instead, he said he had resigned to help “bolster democracy”.
He told reporters: “Even though I was not linked to the unexpected incident I am resigning to facilitate a fair and credible investigation into it.”
The minister expressed the hope that all the suspicions and confusions would be removed through his resignation, as most people, including those in the ruling party and the opposition, thought that the investigation process could be impaired if he did not step down.
He came under pressure after his Assistant Personal Secretary Omar Faruq Talukder and two railway officials were nabbed before BGB’s Pilkhana headquarters with an amount of Tk7m kept in the car that was reportedly moving towards his residence.