The High Court on Monday directed the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to conduct a probe into the incident of taking a loan of Tk 150 million from a private bank by mortgaging a portion of land on the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway.
The anti-graft body has also been asked to submit a report with it within June 26 this year after completing the investigation over the issue.
The High Court bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed by Obayed Ahmed, a Supreme Court lawyer, in this regard.
The court also issued a rule asking the bodies concerned to explain as to why the inaction of the respondents in not performing their official duty by taking necessary steps against the corruption and misappropriation by corrupted person or persons in respect to selling public property in Dhaka-Mymensingh highway shall not be declared illegal.
It also wanted to know in the rule as to why a direction should not be given to the respondents to perform their official duty by taking necessary steps against corruption and misappropriation by corrupted person or persons involved in the auction process of the public property in Dhaka-Mymensingh highway.
Anti-Corruption Commission, Bangladesh Bank, Bangladesh Financial Intelligent Unit (BFIU), Social Islami Bnak Limited (SIBL) and Managing Director of the SIBL has been asked to comply with the rule.
Lawyers Aneeq R Haque and Md Tamjid Hasan appeared in the hearing on behalf of the writ petitioner, while Deputy Attorney Genral AKM Amin Uddin Manik represented the state.
One Golam Faruk became the owner of a portion of land on the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway at Azampur area in Uttara using forged documents. He later took a bank loan of Tk 150 million by mortgaging the land to a private bank. The bank auctioned the land as the loan was not paid.
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on April 14 arrested him from Uttara area in a case. Later in a press briefing, the RAB said that they have arrested Golam Faruk and his associate Feroz Al Mamun in a case filed over an attempt to murder with Badda Police Station in the capital. In that briefing, the RAB also raised the issue of auctioning the highway land for sale.
In the press briefing, RAB’s law and media wing director Khandaker Al Moin said the land piece of Dhaka-Mymensingh highway at Azompur area in Uttara was acquired in 1948. Golam Faruk made fake records of that land in 2006. He bought the land for Tk 30,000 in his wife's name in 2010 and made another fake record. In the same year, Golam Faruk recorded the land in his name from his wife.
RAB official Khandaker Al Moin said after registering the land in his own name, Faruk took a loan of Tk 150 million from a private bank by mortgaging the land. The bank issued a notice for selling the land in an auction in 2013 as the loan was not paid. But later, the bank found that the land belongs to the roads and highways department.
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