bdnews24.com :
The government plans an amendment to existing laws to expedite fraud investigations now often stuck in the rigmarole over jurisdictions. That has ended up denying justice to tens of thousands in Bangladesh. Police was responsible for investigating complaints over fraud and forgery until late 2013, after which the jurisdiction was shifted to the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC).
Since then, fraud investigations and trials have been delayed as the police do not lodge these complaints anymore and the ACC says it is bogged down by ‘insufficient manpower’ to handle the flood of fraud allegations.
Seized of the problem, the law ministry has already moved to amend the laws to solve the problem. A draft has been prepared, which might be tabled at Parliament during its current session, according to Law Minister Anisul Huq.
The 2004 ACC Act stipulates that the commission will look in to matters like acquiring wealth disproportionate to known source(s) of income, embezzlement of government resources and breach of trust.
In 2009, money laundering was included in its purview. In December 2013, offences under five sections, including fraud and forgery of the Code of Criminal Procedure, were added. Until then, police investigated these complaints and the trial were held in magistrate courts. But after the 2013 change in laws, these cases now have to be tried in district judges’ courts.
These courts being few and far between cannot handle the flood of complaints and that leads to the stalemate. Munshiganj’s Aminul Islam Sabuj was conned by fraudsters who took Tk 80,000 and promised him employment in Malaysia.
The local police advised him to take the matter to the ACC, when he went to file a case. The only option for Sabuj was to come to the ACC headquarters in Dhaka as there was no ACC office in Munshiganj.
“I was told at first that the ACC does not file cases, instead I was asked to submit my complaint in writing. I did that.
“Since then I have been to the ACC five times; the last time in May, but I am yet to get a clear idea on what is actually done about my complaint,” Sabuj told bdnews24.com.
ACC spokesperson Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya told bdnews24.com that they can provide the total number of complaints lodged with them, but no statistics on the types of crimes and a detailed break-up were available.
An ACC official, preferring anonymity, says that over 5,000 complaints have been forwarded to them in the last two years only by police stations in Dhaka.
The government plans an amendment to existing laws to expedite fraud investigations now often stuck in the rigmarole over jurisdictions. That has ended up denying justice to tens of thousands in Bangladesh. Police was responsible for investigating complaints over fraud and forgery until late 2013, after which the jurisdiction was shifted to the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC).
Since then, fraud investigations and trials have been delayed as the police do not lodge these complaints anymore and the ACC says it is bogged down by ‘insufficient manpower’ to handle the flood of fraud allegations.
Seized of the problem, the law ministry has already moved to amend the laws to solve the problem. A draft has been prepared, which might be tabled at Parliament during its current session, according to Law Minister Anisul Huq.
The 2004 ACC Act stipulates that the commission will look in to matters like acquiring wealth disproportionate to known source(s) of income, embezzlement of government resources and breach of trust.
In 2009, money laundering was included in its purview. In December 2013, offences under five sections, including fraud and forgery of the Code of Criminal Procedure, were added. Until then, police investigated these complaints and the trial were held in magistrate courts. But after the 2013 change in laws, these cases now have to be tried in district judges’ courts.
These courts being few and far between cannot handle the flood of complaints and that leads to the stalemate. Munshiganj’s Aminul Islam Sabuj was conned by fraudsters who took Tk 80,000 and promised him employment in Malaysia.
The local police advised him to take the matter to the ACC, when he went to file a case. The only option for Sabuj was to come to the ACC headquarters in Dhaka as there was no ACC office in Munshiganj.
“I was told at first that the ACC does not file cases, instead I was asked to submit my complaint in writing. I did that.
“Since then I have been to the ACC five times; the last time in May, but I am yet to get a clear idea on what is actually done about my complaint,” Sabuj told bdnews24.com.
ACC spokesperson Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya told bdnews24.com that they can provide the total number of complaints lodged with them, but no statistics on the types of crimes and a detailed break-up were available.
An ACC official, preferring anonymity, says that over 5,000 complaints have been forwarded to them in the last two years only by police stations in Dhaka.
