The Chittagong Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) is seeking permission to investigate a £1.5 million deposit made into a bank account named for a major religious institution in Chittagong allegedly opened using falsified signatures.
The account was opened in the name of Maizbhandar Sharif Shah-e-Jame Masjid Directors and Development Committee.
A Pakistani national, identified as Alamgir Mia, transferred roughly Tk20 crore into an account at Laldighi branch of Janata Bank in Chittagong from Barclays Bank in London, raising suspicions of funding for Islamist militants.
Documents of the case, lodged at Kotwali police station on October 28, were received by the ACC Chittagong Division Office yesterday.
They will be sent to Dhaka on Sunday as the Chittagong office seeks permission to investigate the matter, ACC Chittagong Divisional Director Abdul Aziz Bhuiyan said.
Kotwali police station Inspector (investigation) Nezam Uddin lodged a case against the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Assistant Director Abul Kalam Azad, Maizbhandar Masjid Director and Development Committee General Secretary SMS Shahjahan Maizbhandari and Chief Treasurer SM Sahibul Alam, and Rakib.
The mosque committee’s president, Syed Nazibul Bashar Maizbhandari, also MP for Chittagong 2 (Fatikchhari) and chairman of the Bangladesh Tariqat Federation, alleged that two members of the committee had opened the account by forging his and other members’ signatures.
He said General Secretary SMS Shahjahan Maizbhandari and Chief Treasurer SM Sahidul Alam had opened the account with the Janata Bank Laldighi branch in May this year, allegedly to defame him and Maizbhandar Sharif mosque.
“We informed law enforcement and intelligence agencies and Janata Bank authorities about the matter soon after the deposit of a cheque of £1.5 million from Barclays Bank PLC in London by a Pakistani citizen,” he added.
Inspector Nezam of Kotwali police station lodged a case with the then Metropolitan Sessions Judge SM Mujibur Rahman on May 19 seeking investigation into the matter.
“The police investigation is almost complete but this type of case should be looked into by the ACC as per the law,” he said.
Didarul Alam, assistant general manager (foreign section) of Janata Bank’s Laldighi corporate office in Chittagong city, said the bank opened the account on simple faith but suspended it after receiving the complaint.
The investigation officer quoted Shahjahan as saying he got the link of the fund from the Pakistani national through Abul Kalam Azad, assistant director of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education.
Azad confirmed Shahjahan’s account, saying that Tk2 crore of Tk20 crore was to be given for the mosque’s development and the rest would go to Azad and six of his associates. But Azad told police that he did not know Shahjahan.
