8 arrested for graft

The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday arrested eight people, including two suspended employees of the Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP), from different parts of the country for their alleged involvement in different types of corruption.

The suspended DIP officials are director Munshi Mueed Ikram and senior staff Saiful Islam.

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The two were held from the capital's Segunbagicha area after a case was filed against them with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station yesterday in connection with issuing fake government official passport, confirmed ACC Public Relations Officer Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya.

Besides Ikram and Saiful, 19 people were accused in the case.

Hasan Ali, manager of a Rajshahi Krishi Unnyan Bank branch in Lalmonirhat, was arrested from Fakirer Tokeya in the district for embezzling Tk 4.41 lakh in the name of disbursing crop loans among farmers.

Mobarak Ali Kha, acting chairman of Monirampur union in Jessore, and Mizanur Rahman, of Monirampur upazila, were held from Jessore for misappropriating VGF rice, and Arifur Rahman, of Kalihati upazila in Tangail, was caught from Sylhet's Golapganj for taking his job by giving fake address.

Bahar Uddin, a deed writer at Sylhet Sadar Sub-Registrar office, was held from Sylhet for pocketing Tk 6.95 lakh by making fake land documents.

Akram Hossain, of Alfadanga upazila in Faridpur, was nabbed from Faridpur for making fake land documents by using forged signatures of Alfadanga upazila UNO, land surveyor and land officer (kanungo).  

The anti-graft body in a statement yesterday said the eight were arrested based on cases filed against them with different police stations.

ALLEGATION AGAINST TWO DIP OFFICIALS

In April last year, the Turkey government informed the Bangladesh foreign ministry through a letter that it had detained three Bangladeshis who were carrying the Bangladesh government employees' passports even though they were not the government employees.

The DIP then investigated the matter and found the allegation to be true and initially four of its officials and staff were suspended for “verifying” the passports and affixing signatures to them.

The four are Muyeed Ekram and Saiful Islam, SM Shahjahan, assistant director of DIP, and its senior assistant Shahjahan Miah.

Later, at least two DIP probe bodies found that all of them were guilty of issuing over 170 government-employee passports based on fake certificates between November 2014 and March last year.

According to the first investigation committee report in May last year, these four suspended employees had issued the passports with fake no objection certificates and stated that issuance of government passports through illegal means had contributed to human trafficking.

The ACC in its yesterday's statement mentioned that the investigators found that in exchange for bribe, the accused in the passport forgery case had issued 66 fake government official passports.