The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday filed a case against Syeda Iqbal Mand Banu, the mother-in-law of BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman, for not submitting her wealth statement.
ACC Deputy Director RK Majumder filed the case with Ramna police station since she had not submitted her wealth statement on time as asked by the commission, an ACC public relations officer confirmed the Dhaka Tribune.
The anti-graft body served a notice upon Iqbal Mand Banu on January 25, 2012, asking her to submit her wealth statement. Zakir Hossain, the caretaker of her house, received the notice on her behalf.
However, she acquired a stay order from the High Court on the request. Later the commission obtained an order from the Supreme Court on September 26 on stalling the High Court stay order.
Following the Supreme Court order, the ACC was free to collect Banu’s wealth statement, particularly to investigate the wealth of BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman. However she has not complied with the ACC notice till date, said an official.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Syeda Iqbal Mand Banu appealed to the anti-graft body to initiate a fresh inquiry into her wealth through her lawyer Nasiruddin Asim. The lawyer told reporters that his client would comply with the commission’s instructions if it launched a reinvestigation.
However, the ACC said it would move ahead with its plan to file a case against her for not submitting her wealth statement as instructed.
“If they have any objection in this regard, they should clear their position before the court,” ACC Commissioner M Shahabuddin said.
The ACC on Tuesday took the decision to file the case against Syeda Iqbal Mand Banu.
The commission, earlier on May 29, 2007, served a notice upon Tarique Rahman, asking him to submit his wealth statement. Later, analysing his statement, the commission found that Tarique had accumulated wealth worth Tk4.82 crore through illegal means and concealed information of his properties valued at Tk4.23 crore.
Following the findings, the ACC on September 26, 2007 filed a case with Kafrul police station against Tarique, his wife Zubaida Rahman and mother-in-law on charge of concealing wealth information. Sources said of the Tk4.82 crore, the commission had found Fixed Deposit Receipts for Tk35 lakh in Zubaida’s name. But Tarique claimed that Zubaida had received the money from her mother.
The ACC, however, did not find any evidence supporting the claim. It rather got proof that Zubaida and her mother had aided Tarique in his attempt to show illegal income as legal.
