Ministry car, Tk 70 lakh, some puzzles
At around 11:30pm on Monday, a railway ministry car pulled over beside the guardroom at the main entrance to the Pilkhana BGB headquarters in the capital and hollered that there were stashes of bribe money in the vehicle.
BGB personnel searched the car and found Tk 70 lakh.
They detained the driver and three others, who turned out to be railway minister's Assistant Personal Secretary (APS) Omar Faruq Talukder, Bangladesh Railway General Manager (East) Yusuf Ali Mridha and its Chief Commandant Enamul Huq, said sources in police and BGB.
Ali Azam, the driver of APS Omar, drove the vehicle carrying the APS and two other officials to gate-4 at Jhigatola after they refused to give him Tk 5 lakh as a share of the money, the sources said.
BGB members seized Tk 70 lakh and kept the four detained at the Pilkhana BGB headquarters. The detainees were released at around 1:00pm yesterday.
Wishing anonymity, a senior police official of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel had informed them about the incident and asked them to take the detainees in police custody.
But police did not respond, as no case had been filed in this connection, the police official said.
Despite repeated attempts, neither Omar Faruq nor Yusuf Ali could be reached over the phone.
No official statements on the incident have come from police or the railway ministry.
UNB reports: Faruq said over the phone that he was carrying Tk 25-30 lakh that belonged to his brother-in-law. But he did not say anything about the source of the money.
Maj Gen Anwar Hossain, director general of the BGB, told The Daily Star that the BGB men detained the four on suspicion. "They were freed after their identities were verified."
It was a misunderstanding, he added.
Railway Minister Suranjit Sengupta told journalists yesterday that he had formed two separate committees to probe the incident.
"Joint Secretary (Administration) Shashi Bhushan Singha and my Personal Secretary Akhtaruzzaman will be in charge of the two committees,” said the minister.
The committees were asked to submit reports within 15 working days.
The minister said he heard that the driver was trying to abduct his APS, Omar Faruq.
Bangladesh Railway Director General Mohammad Abu Taher, who was out of the capital, told The Daily Star that he had been informed about the incident.
"I shall try to get the details after I reach Dhaka tomorrow [today],” he said.
Meanwhile, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said the ruling party men broke all records of corruption, as bags full of money were found in the cars of lawmaker and minister.
“Think how much money is being looted…76 lakh taka have been found in the car of a minister's assistant personal secretary. Another 80 lakh taka were found in a lawmaker's car,” he said at a discussion organised by Jatiyatabadi Muktijoddha Dal in the capital.
He urged ruling party lawmakers and ministers to disclose their wealth.
The BNP leader said at least Tk 400 crore is required to set up a bank, and ruling party leaders earned that money within only four years.
“People want to know about the ruling party men's wealth. How did they get that huge amount of money?”
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Roey, this is no tirade...but a glimmer of your tirade.