Tarique Rahman yesterday asked ruling Awami League Publicity Secretary Hasan Mahmud to apologise for his comment on Tarique’s Swiss bank account.
The BNP Senior Vice-chairman asked the ruling party lawmaker to seek an apology publicly in a legal notice issued yesterday.
On July 1, Hasan accused Tarique and his brother Arafat Rahamn Koko of possessing money in Swiss banks.
Tarique’s lawyer Kaiser Kamal sent the notice to former minister for environment and forest Hasan urging him to prove his statement within two weeks or seek apology publicly, otherwise legal action will be taken against him.
The notice said Tarique and his borther Koko do not have any account in the Swiss Bank.
When contacted, Hasan Mahmud told the Dhaka Tribune that he had not yet obtained the notice and declined to make any comment on it.
Hasan added that Tarique earlier sent legal notices twice but he had not replied but he served a counter-notice to the BNP leader.
A recent report of the Swiss National Bank said the amount of the deposited money by Bangladeshis in Swiss banks rose to 37 crore 19 lakh Swiss Franc (nearly Tk3,163 crore 37 lakh) in 2013, which was 22 crore 89 lakh Swiss Franc (nearly Tk1,908 crore) in 2012.
Following the Swiss Bank report, the Bangladesh central bank decided to investigate fictitious accounts held by Bangladeshi nationals. The Bangladesh Bank would require signing a memorandum of understanding with the Swiss Bank to conduct such an inquiry.
Tarique has been living in London since September 2008. He was arrested on March 7, 2007 during the army-backed interim regime.