Court Reporter //

The court has sent former Acting Registrar of Sylhet Medical University Naimul Haque Chowdhury to jail in a case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

On Tuesday (January 27) afternoon, Judge Munshi Abdul Majid of the Sylhet Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court ordered him to be sent to jail.

According to court sources, Naimul Haque Chowdhury was the Director (Finance) of Sylhet Medical University at its inception. Later, he served as the Acting Registrar. He is the second accused in the chargesheet in the ACC case. The main accused in the case, the university’s Vice-Chancellor (VC) Dr. Morshed Ahmed Chowdhury, is still absconding. It could not be confirmed whether he is in the country or has fled abroad.

Earlier, the court ordered the sending of eight more officials and employees of the university to jail in a corruption case last Sunday. Earlier, when several other officials surrendered and applied for bail in corruption cases, the court did not grant them bail and ordered them to be sent to prison.

ACC Public Prosecutor Shafiul Alam confirmed this information. He said that former Acting Registrar of Sylhet Medical University Naimul Haque surrendered to the court on Tuesday afternoon and applied for bail in the ACC case. After the hearing, the court judge did not grant him bail and ordered him to be sent to prison.

According to sources, the University Grants Commission (UGC) received allegations of widespread irregularities and corruption in the appointment of officials and employees at this university, which was established in 2018. Taking note of these allegations, the UGC conducted an investigation in 2023. The investigation found the truth of abuse of power, widespread irregularities and corruption against the then Vice-Chancellor Morshed Ahmed Chowdhury and Acting Registrar Md. Naimul Haque Chowdhury. Later, on April 1, 2024, ACC filed a case against the then Vice Chancellor, Acting Registrar and 58 officials on charges of irregularities and corruption in the appointment of the integrated district office of Sylhet. On April 25 of that year, the court issued arrest warrants against 58 people.

ACC sources said that the Vice Chancellor and Acting Registrar made appointments to various posts illegally without publishing recruitment notices from 2019 to 2022 and without the approval of the Syndicate and UGC. From 2019 to 2023, 220 people were appointed completely temporarily (ad hoc) for six months. Later, the term was extended for up to six months. After the specified time, the service was not regularized and the term of ad hoc was extended again two to five times.

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