Court Correspondent :
A Dhaka court on Tuesday ordered to freeze 170 bank accounts of Md Monir Hossain, known as Golden Monir, and three others in connection with a money laundering case.
The other accused are: Monir’s brother- in-law Md Haider Ali, Sirajganj Upazila Chairman and the district’s Awami League Convener Riaz Uddin and Dhaka North City Corporation Ward Councillor Shafiqul Islam.
Judge KM Emrul Kayesh of the Senior Special Judge’s Court of Dhaka passed the order after Md Sadeque Ali,
an inspector of Criminal Investigation Department and also the investigation officer of the case, submitted an application, seeking permission for freezing the accounts.
On May 11, CID Inspector Mohammad Ibrahim filed the case with Badda Police Station under the Money Laundering Prevention Act against 10 people, including Monir.
In the case, Monir’s wife, son, daughter and sister were also made accused for money laundering.
According to the prosecution, Monir owns around 30 plots, over a dozen buildings and two car showrooms, all were bought with his illegally earned money. CID Inspector Ibrahim added that Monir deposited over Tk 791 crore in 129 bank accounts during his involvement with gold smuggling.Only Tk 6.18 crore is currently available in those accounts.
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested Monir on November 20 last year, and recovered a foreign-made pistol, bullets, foreign liquor, currencies of ten countries, eight kilograms of gold ornaments and Tk 1.9 crore in cash from his Merul Badda residence.