The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has recently received wealth information about several leaders of Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh from 17 organisations as part of its investigation into graft allegations against them.
"The commission has received information about income, government grants, audit report, and income tax files of several Hefazat leaders and their institutions from 17 government and private organisations," said ACC secretary Md Anwar Hossain Howlader on Wednesday.
These organisations provided documents related to income and expense from fiscal year 2016-2017 to fiscal year 2020-2021 of different madrasas and some other institutions run by those leaders, he added.
Responding to a question, he said the commission has started scrutinising income tax files of Hefazat leaders including Mamunul Haque, Mahfuzul Haque, Ataullah Amini, Jalal Uddin Ahmed, and Mohammad Mohsin Bhuiyan after receiving those from the central bank.
The anti-graft watchdog launched an investigation against more than 50 leaders of the Islamic advocacy group on charges of embezzlement and corruption in May, 2021.
In this regard, the ACC has formed an eight-member inquiry team, led by its assistant director Akhtar Hossain Azad, to investigate the allegations.
Hefazat leaders have allegedly embezzled a huge sum of money from the organisation's funds, various madrasas, orphanages, Islamic institutions and foreign aid in the name of religious purposes.
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