By Mizan Rahman/Dhaka
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has filed a charge-sheet against a top Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader for allegedly siphoning off 95.4mn taka to England.
ACC director Nasim Anwar, who is also the case investigation officer, filed the charge-sheet against Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain at the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court, commission spokesman Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya said.
The charge-sheet will be placed before the magistrate on Monday, following the weekend and government holidays, court sources said.
The commission on August 7 approved the filing of charges against Mosharraf, who is a former health minister, after investigations into his assets by the anti-graft body revealed irregularities.
Although the ACC interrogated the BNP leader’s wife Bilkis Akhter Hossain, she was not charged because she was not found to be involved.
“During interrogation, Mosharraf confessed that he transferred the money to his wife’s account but that his wife was not involved with the laundering, so she was spared from the charge-sheet,” ACC director Anwar said.
According to the charge-sheet, Mosharraf concealed information about illegally amassing over £800,000, by abusing his power as health minister during the 2001-2006 BNP government.
The money was deposited in a joint fixed-term deposit account of Lloyds TSB Offshore Private Banking in the British Crown dependency of Guernsey. The account was jointly owned by Mosharraf and his wife.
As the BNP leader had not taken permission from Bangladesh Bank to open the account abroad, it was a clear violation of section 5 of the Foreign Currency Control Act, 1947, sources said.
In the charge-sheet, it was stated that the former minister claimed that he had deposited the money while residing with his wife in the UK from 1969 to 1975 to study and work, but had failed to submit any documents authenticating the claim.
The ACC official said the commission would take initiatives to repatriate the money if the court found Mosharraf guilty of money laundering.
The ACC director filed the money laundering case with Ramna police station against Mosharraf on February 2.
After the case was filed, the former minister secured advance bail on February 10 from the High Court.
The anti-graft body then filed a petition with the Appellate Division, which later rejected his bail.
Mosharraf was arrested on March 12 and is now in jail in connection with the case.
