The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday filed four cases against 23 persons, including SOM Kalim Ullah, managing director (MD) of Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited’s (BTCL) and four former MDs, for embezzling over Tk6bn from illegal Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls.
Out of the cases filed with Banani police station, two were filed by ACC Deputy Director SM Shahidur Rahman and the others were filed by Deputy Director Mahmud Hasan and Deputy Assistant Director Rafi Mohammad Nazmus Sadat.
Among the accused are Kalim Ullah, his predecessor Azizul Islam, former MDs SM Khairuzzaman, Afsarul Alam and M Abu Sayed Khan, former member (maintenance and operation) Mohammad Towfiq, former general managers Anwarul Mamun and AHM Bakhtiarul Alam, former divisional engineers Zahir Uddin M Babar, M Khurshed Hasan and Habibur Rahman Pramanik, divisional engineers Anwarul Hossin Masud and M Sajjad Hossain, former assistant divisional engineers Khan M Kawsar, M Moktar Ahmed and Romel Chakma, and assistant divisional engineers Saifur Rahman Bhuiyan, Samsad Mahmud, M Abdus Salam and Munira Begum.
Also accused are officials of Ericsson Bangladesh Ltd’s Contract Manager Asif Jahid, Relations Manager Nazrul Islam and engineer Masrurul Hakim.
On August 25, the ACC filing four separate cases after a commission inquiry revealed over the last four years over Tk6bn had been swindled through illegal VoIP businesses and erasing information from call detail records.
The probe report said telecommunication officials in connection with Ericsson Bangladesh Ltd had erased incoming international call minutes from the call detail record of ITX-5 and ITX-7.
Investigations found that the number of international incoming calls per day had declined by 15m from nearly 45m recorded in early 2010, leading to revenue loss worth Tk100m per day. As a result, BTCL now owes over Tk10bn to various foreign carriers.
In October last year, cases were filed against three top BTCL officials and owner of an IT company on charges of swindling around Tk32.7m through illegal VoIP business. And in November, the commission filed five cases against 14 persons, including six BTCL officials for misappropriation of government revenue worth Tk2.05bn through the same means.
