A Dhaka court has issued arrest warrants against five people, including BNP standing committee member Mirza Abbas, on charges of causing losses of around Tk15.52 crore to the government through the allocation of land to journalists.
The other accused are former state minister for housing and public works and BNP leader Alamgir Kabir, former joint secretary Bijon Kanti Sarker, Officer Assistant at National Housing Authority (NHA) Matiar Rahman, and cashier Mansur Alam.
Acting Metropolitan Sessions Judge KM Imrul Kayes passed the order on Tuesday afternoon.
The court also fixed March 25 to report on the execution of the arrest order.
On February 16, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) submitted a charge sheet against BNP standing committee member Mirza Abbas and four others.
ACC Deputy Director Jatan Kumar Ray, who is the investigating officer (IO) of the case, submitted the charge sheet against the five accused to the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court.
The anti-graft watchdog approved the charge sheet at a regular meeting on February 10.
The IO also appealed for the discharge of Md Azharul Haque, former deputy director (land), from charges, as allegations brought against him were not proved during the investigation.
On March 6 last year, the ACC’s then deputy director Jatan Kumar Roy filed a case against Alamgir Kabir and three others for reportedly causing losses to the government of around Tk15.52 crore in allocating land to journalists at a low rate.
According to the case statement, in 2002, Alamgir sent a letter to then prime minister Khaleda Zia, requesting the development of a housing area for journalists, writers, artists, and cultural activists without receiving any application from them.
After receiving the letter, Khaleda reportedly sent a letter to the housing and public works secretary, asking him to take steps as per the rules. While the matter was under process, Alamgir directed the secretary to allocate land from a previously designed housing area.
Without getting permission from the ministry, the accused NHA officials allocated seven acres of land in the capital’s Mirpur area to the Dhaka Journalists Cooperatives Limited at only Tk3.39 crore, against a market value of Tk19crore, thereby violating the amended Housing Policy 1993.