The High Court (HC) has said that forging any document of Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is a heinous crime and there is no scope of acting soft on people involved in such incident.
The HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo came up with the observations on Monday (June 13) while discharging a rule regarding the bail plea of Fatema Khatun arrested in a case filed over forging documents of the PMO.
The HC bench said, “There is no question of allowing bail to people involved in forging the document of Prime Minister’s Office. They have to remain behind the bars.”
Advocate Momtaz Uddin Mehedi argued for the bail petition of Fatema, a former staff of the PMO, while Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin Manik represented the state.
Mohammad Rafiqul Alam, director-7 of PMO, on May 5 in 2020 filed the case with Tejgaon Police Station over an incident where PMO documents were forged for the appointment of treasurer of North South University (NSU).
According to the case statement, the document with the prime minister’s decision on the three-man Education Ministry shortlist for the post of treasurer at NSU was stolen from the PMO. Subsequently, the decision in the document was illegally altered.
The altered document was then forwarded from the PMO to Bangabhaban for the President’s approval.
The Education Ministry shortlist for the NSU treasurer post included Prof M Enamul Haque from NSU, Prof Md Abdur Rouf from BUET, and Air Commodore (retd) M Abdus Salam Azad.
The prime minister had selected Prof Enamul Haque for the post and put a tick mark beside his name. The forgers intercepted the document before it could reach the president’s office and put a tick next to Air Commodore (retd) M Abdus Salam Azad’s name and crosses next to the others.
Meanwhile, the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) on April 25 approved the charge sheet in a case against eight people, including NSU treasurer Mohammad Shahjahan and former treasurer of Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP) Air Commodore (retd) Robiul Awal for document forgery at the Prime Minister’s Office.
As the allegations fall under the jurisdiction of the ACC, the commission's Deputy Director Farid Ahmed Patwary filed the case against the eight.
Earlier, police had submitted a charge sheet in a case filed against six people, including Chhatra League leader Tariqul Islam Mumin, for the forgery. The other accused in the case are NSU student Md Farhad Hossain alias Morshad Alam, PMO staffer Fatema Khatun, Md Rubel, Nazim Uddin, and Air Commodore (retd) M Abdus Salam Azad, former treasurer of Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP).
PMO staffer Fatema stole the document and gave it to Farhad in front of PMO gate-4 on March 1, upon the instructions of Chhatra League leader Toriqul. She also received Tk 20,000 by bKash for the job.