A Chattogram court on Sunday directed the Police Headquarters to appeal to Interpol for issuing a ‘red notice’ against fugitive former Land Minister and Awami League lawmaker Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed and his wife Rukhmila Zaman.
Chattogram Metropolitan Special Judge (Acting) Md Abdur Rahman passed the order after a brief hearing on a petition filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on September 18. The petition sought custody of the former land minister of the previous Hasina cabinet and former Awami League lawmaker from Chattogram-13 (Anwara-Karnaphuli) constituency, who has been absconding.
Javed and his close family members, including his wife—who served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of United Commercial Bank Ltd (UCBL)—left the country just before the fall of the previous Awami League government following last year’s month-long student-led mass uprising.
Public Prosecutor of ACC’s Chattogram Integrated Office, Advocate Mokarram Hossain, said that the special court had granted the ACC’s petition seeking Interpol’s intervention to arrest the ex-minister and his wife, who are wanted by Bangladesh Police on charges of massive corruption, including laundering huge sums abroad.
“Now we will send the court order to Police Headquarters, and then they will formally appeal to the Interpol authority to issue red notices against the accused,” he added.
Earlier, a court ordered the attachment and freezing of 343 houses, apartments, land, and other immovable assets owned by Saifuzzaman and his wife—228 in the UAE, 9 in the US and other countries, and several in the UK. On March 5, another court order froze 39 bank accounts belonging to the family, with deposits totaling Tk 52.68 crore. Additionally, the court ordered the seizure of Saifuzzaman’s shares worth Tk 102 crore and 957 bighas of land in response to an ACC petition.
Md Mashiur Rahman, ACC Deputy Director at the Head Office, filed another case on July 24 last year against Javed and 31 others, including his wife, siblings, and employees of his business establishments, at the ACC’s Chattogram Integrated District Office-1.
Besides, the ACC is investigating another case against Javed, his wife and former UCBL chairman Rukhmila Zaman, along with fifty bank officials, for allegedly embezzling around Tk 124 crore by opening false accounts.
Meanwhile, Utpal Pal and Abdul Aziz—two close associates of Javed—were arrested by the ACC from the city’s Agrabad area a few days ago on charges of involvement in money laundering and illegally acquiring assets at home and abroad.
Based on information extracted from Utpal and Aziz, ACC officials on Sunday recovered a huge quantity of documents and files, contained in 23 sacks, relating to Javed’s assets and corruption from Sikderbari of Shikolbaha union under Karnaphuli upazila.
Earlier, courts in separate orders had imposed travel bans on Javed, his wife, close family members, as well as Utpal and Aziz.
Source: BSS