The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) speeds up investigation process into the corruptions against BNP leader Abdullah Awal Mintu and four of his family members, including Tabith Awal, a BNP nominated mayoral candidate in the ongoing Dhaka North City Corporation election. The ACC had launched the investigation against them following the allegations raised through the ‘Panama Papers’.
It should be mentioned that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) had disclosed a huge number of secret documents of a law firm in Panama, which is known as the ‘Panama Papers’ on May 5 in 2017. The ‘Panama Papers’ raised corruption charges against around 15 Bangladeshi businessmen and five of them are the members of the family of BNP leader Abdullah Awal Mintu.
According to the ACC, it under rapid investigation process into the corruption allegations against a total of 11 people in Bangladesh, including Abdulla Awal Mintu, his wife Nasrin Fatema Awal and three sons--Tabith Awal, Tafsi Awal and Tajwar Awal. The alleged corruptions reportedly by the ‘Mintu family’ involves gas exploration at blocks 12, 13 and 14 of the country. The name of Abdul Awal Mintu came in connection with NFM Energy limited, a company registered in Bermuda.
Among the other alleged persons are businessmen Faisal Chowdhury, Farida Moghul, Shahid Ulla and Samir Ahmed. The ACC officials also said that as part of the investigation process, the state anti-graft body also intensified communications with the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) of the Bangladesh Bank and the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
ACC Chairman Iqbal Mahmood said, “To know details about those persons, Mutual Legal Assistance Request (MLAR) has been sent to different countries. But response in this regards are yet to arrive and that is why enquiry process into the allegation is still on.” According to sources, though different government organisations concerned were urged to extend their cooperation, but there was no such progress mysteriously.
The ‘Panama Papers’ had disclosed 1 crore and 34 lakh secret documents. A German daily newspaper handed over all the documents to ICIJ, which published those documents through its website. As per the ‘Panama Papers’, it had disclosed corruptions by politicians, businessmen and industrialists of different countries.
Earlier, the ACC also had interrogated six more businessmen, whose names were mentioned in the ‘Panama Papers’. They were United Groups Chairman Mahmud Raja and three of the directors of the company--Khondoker Moynul Ahsan Shamim, Ahmed Ismail and Akhter Mahmud, Erik Johan Anderson Wilson of WMV Ltd, Farhan Aqibur Rahman Khokan of Intropid Group and Mahtaba Rahman of Celcon Shipping Co.