The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has begun interrogation of Afzal Hossain, an accountant at the medical education department of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), in connection with two separate money laundering cases.
The commission began the interrogation from the first day of Afzal’s 14-day remand in the two cases, ACC Secretary Muhammad Delwar Bakht told media at the commission’s headquarters on Sunday.
ACC Deputy Director Md Towfiqul Islam, investigating officer of the cases, led the interrogation.
The investigation team is also looking into the wealth information of Afzal's wife, Rubina Khanam, who is also accused of amassing illegal wealth.
On June 27 last year, ACC Deputy Director Md Towfiqul Islam filed the two cases under the Prevention of Illegal Wealth Acquisition, Money Laundering, and Corruption Act with the ACC's Dhaka-1 office.
According to the ACC case statement, Afzal accumulated a lot of wealth, including five houses in Dhaka and one in Australia, misusing his power and taking bribes from candidates to ensure they got jobs at various government and private offices.
The national anti-graft commission has found that Afzal and his wife amassed over Tk36.30 crore in illegal wealth and laundered over Tk 284.51 crore.
The commission initially found that the couple amassed over Tk4.79 crore and Afzal had hidden Tk 2.1 crore in wealth from the ACC, according to the case.
Furthermore, Afzal’s wife also had hidden assets worth Tk5.9 crore from the ACC. Afzal kept most of his wealth in his wife’s name in an attempt to avoid responsibility for the illegal wealth, the ACC said.
On January 11, 2019, ACC Deputy Director M Samsul Alam interrogated the couple for around seven hours and found evidence of their illegal wealth.
On January 14, 2019, the Health Ministry suspended Afzal Hossain on charges of corruption.
Soon thereafter, on January 21, 2019, the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court ordered the confiscation of all moveable and immoveable properties of Afzal and his wife Rubina Khanam, and the freezing of all their bank accounts, in a case filed by the ACC.
On March 18, 2019, the ACC seized the assets of the DGHS accountant in Uttara.
Afzal's wife was a stenographer at the same office as her husband Afzal, since 1995.
