The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday questioned Soumendra Lal Chandra Shoilen, former assistant personal secretary of ex-state minister for religious affairs M Shahjahan Miah, on charges of accumulation of illegal wealth and laundering money to India, an official concerned told reporters.
ACC Deputy Director Ahsan Ali had questioned Shoilen at 10am-12:30pm at the ACC headquarters, he added.
The commission had already collected several documents including the income tax statement and other related documents of the official.
According to the allegation received by the ACC, Shoilen has accumulated illegal wealth worth Tk50 crore by giving licenses to over 400 Hajj and Umrah Hajj agents in exchange of bribe.
While working as the APS of the ex-minister, the ministry has approved at least 400 licenses to many new companies, usually with bribes, and Shoilen worked as the key player in the irregularities, the allegation reads.
Sources said there were only 324 Hajj and Umrah Hajj agents in the country when the Awami League government took power in 2008, but in 2010, the government approved 78 licenses for Hajj agents and 77 for Umrah agents. Most of the licences were given to Awami League and Awami Olama League leaders and businessmen who support the party.
Sources said, the ministry, later in April 2011, published circulars in newspapers asking Hajj and Umrah Hajj agents to apply. In response to the circular, a total of 1,006 applications were submitted for license as Hajj agent while 137 were as Umrah Hajj agent license, they added.
Among those, 400 were given licences in exchange of Tk50 crore as bribe, they alleged.
Shoilen, who also holds the post of office secretary at Patuakhali Awami League, has made huge money from the businesses and has built a five storied building at Patuakhali, while his wife owns several flats in the capital, the allegation reads.
There is another allegation that the former APS has laundered a huge amount of money through his mother and siblings to India.
