Dhaka //

No one against whom the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has filed a case will be exempted. They will either have to stay in jail or be on bail.

The agency’s Director General (Special Investigation) Mir Md. Zainul Abedin Shibli said this at a press conference at the ACC office on Saturday regarding the arrest of former head of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) Masud Biswas.

He said that Masud Biswas was arrested with the cooperation of the Dhaka Metropolitan Detective Police (DB). He will be sent to the court with a request for a 5-10-day remand for questioning.

He also said that he was arrested in a case of illegally acquiring about 20 million taka. There are many more charges against him. He will be brought on remand and questioned about those charges.

The ACC official warned that none of those against whom the ACC has filed cases so far will be exempted. Investigations are underway against all of them. All the accused in the corruption and irregularities case will be arrested.

ACC sources said that former head of Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) Masud Biswas has been arrested in a case filed on charges of acquiring assets outside known income and abuse of power.

He was arrested in a drive with the help of DB police on Saturday. He was produced at the ACC office in Segunbagchia at 12:15 pm. After being questioned for about an hour and a half, he was taken to court.

Earlier, ACC Public Relations Officer (Deputy Director) Md. Akhtarul Islam said that the ACC filed a case against Masud Biswas on January 2 on charges of acquiring assets outside known income. He will be arrested and produced in court in that case.

The case statement says that Masud Biswas acquired illegal assets outside known income worth Tk 1 crore 87 lakh 72 thousand 622 in his own name; he committed a punishable crime by keeping it in his possession. For this, a case was registered against him under Section 27(1) of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act, 2004 and Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947.

ACC sources further informed that the agency started an investigation against Masud Biswas on September 25 last year after receiving allegations of amassing huge wealth and money laundering through irregularities and corruption. A four-member committee headed by the agency’s Deputy Director Gulshan Anwar Pradhan was formed to investigate the allegations.

The allegations against the former BFIU chief to the ACC state that he has become the owner of huge wealth through abuse of power and irregularities and corruption. The latest allegation is that he did not send the alleged irregularities in the purchase of Sky Capital Airlines’ aircraft to the law enforcement agency in exchange for bribes, and that he allowed the report of financial irregularities, including the looting of about 5,000 crore taka from the bank of NRB Commercial Bank Chairman Tamal Parvez, to be sent as a ‘general observation report’ instead of sending it as an intelligence report. In addition, there are several other allegations of money laundering against Masud Biswas.

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