Main opposition BNP has labelled the delivery of a “dummy cheque” to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) “an insult” to the Zia family.
“This is a prearranged drama meant to insult the Zia family,” said Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, acting secretary general of the party, at a press briefing at the party’s Nayapaltan office yesterday.
On Tuesday, the ACC received a dummy cheque for Tk70.4m, recovered from a Singaporean bank account linked to Arafat Rahman Koko, the youngest son of former prime minister and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, who handed over the cheque to the ACC Chairman M Bodiuzzaman, said the Singaporean government had helped to recover the money since “the state was entitled to it.”
This is the second instalment of the money recovered from Singapore after it was laundered by Koko during the tenure of the BNP-led government.
At the briefing, Mirza Fakhrul reiterated BNP’s demands for a polls-time non-partisan government, saying: “This is the people’s demand; but the government is playing all kinds of tricks to distract them.
“The case is false, fabricated and politically motivated. The verdict of the case was delivered in the absence of Koko and this was done just to humiliate the Zia family,” he alleged.
Fakhrul alleged that the government’s ministers and the leaders of the ruling party had been indulging in various corrupt activities. “We have seen news reports that the trial of the Padma bridge scam was going on.”
In November last year, the ACC received the first instalment of 2.041m Singapore Dollars of the money laundered by Koko. Koko was given six years in jail and fined Tk388.3m for syphoning off money to Singapore during the tenure of the BNP-led four-party alliance government.