Former Dhaka mayor Sayeed Khokon has accused his successor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh of pushing an investigation against him.
Khokon made the allegation at a press conference on Monday, a day after a court ordered a freeze on eight bank accounts belonging to Khokon and members of his family as part of an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Commission into alleged corruption, bdnews24.com reports.
“Eight bank accounts belonging to me and members of my family have been frozen,” Khokon said. “These accounts had a total balance of around Tk 76,272,603. The ACC did not give my family any notice and has frozen these accounts without giving us a chance to defend ourselves.”
Khokon accused Dhaka South Mayor Taposh of “failing to manage the city and is pursuing this malicious course of action against me to cover up his boundless inadequacy”.
Mayor Taposh was not immediately available for comment and his aide Nasirul Hassan Sajeeb said he was 'in a meeting'.
But Sajeeb said: "This issue is between the court and the Anti-Corruption Commission. We do not wish to comment on it. He [Khokon] has lost his mind and is speaking nonsense after the court order. The mayor will not remark on this matter.”
On Sunday, a Dhaka court froze the bank accounts in response to a plea from the ACC. Three of the accounts belonged to Khokon’s businesses, another account belongs to his mother, while two each belong to his wife and sister. The ACC alleged in its plea that the accounts were used for “abnormal, huge and suspicious” transactions.
There have been bids to transfer the money from the accounts, according to the ACC.
Khokon is the son of Mohammad Hanif, the late mayor of an undivided Dhaka. A member of the Awami League’s Central Working Committee, Khokon was the mayor of the Dhaka South City Corporation from 2015 to 2020.
He had sought the Awami League’s nomination for the 2020 mayoral elections, but the party chose Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, son of Jubo League’s founder Sheikh Mani, instead.
Last year, a traders’ leader sued Khokon and six other people on allegations of embezzling around Tk 350 million.
Khokon allegedly promised the traders to grant the legitimacy to the shops constructed at Block-A of Fulbaria Super Market 2, in violation of the building plan.
But authorities evicted the traders from the shops afterwards and they did not get their money back, according to the case dossier. The Police Bureau of Information is investigating the case.