Staff Reporter :
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Wednesday formed a three-member probe body to inquire into an allegation that Major General (retd) Jalal Uddin Ahmed, misappropriated Tk 82 crore through Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society, his own company.
The team members are ACC Deputy Director Jahangir Alam, Assistant Director Debobrato Mandal and Deputy Assistant Director Saiduzzaman.
According to the complaint, Major General Jalal floated the company with a very bad intention.
He advertised of good monthly return if people traded with his company, making substantial deposit. The cooperative society officials assured them of paying Tk 2,000 as profit per month against the deposit of Tk one lakh.
The number of depositors would be about 1,500. But the general instead of keeping his promise embezzled the entire amount and avoided meeting the depositors. They trusted him because he was an army general.
Many retired government officials and employees invested their pension money in the Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society. They are now undone.
The ACC has also information that Jalal Uddin Ahmed by this time laundered part of the embezzled amount to other countries.
He even dilly-dallied to give a date of payment, which roused doubt about his honesty.
Then the clients gathered in front of his residence near the Dhaka Cantonment on April 8. Sensing level of the situation, Jalal assured them of paying between July 1 and July 13 in 2013 in presence of some officials of army intelligence, military police, logistic area commander, station commander and provost marshal, Dhaka.
He issued several bank cheques amounting to Tk five crore to some depositors though there was no money in his account.
Soon after it, the Cantonment Executive Officer seized his passport and called a board meeting where the alleged accused pledged of returning all deposited money in four phases. Since then, he went hiding.
Jalal picked up some retired army officials to work with him in his organisation. Senior Warrant Officer (retd) Nurul Azam Mondal was appointed as Accounts Officer, Corporal (retd) Shamsul Alam as Manager and Senior Warrant Officer Zakir Hossain as Loan Officer. Jalal Uddin Ahmed retired from Bangladesh Army on December 31 in 2003.
After retirement, he and his wife Aleya Fatema started the organisation, which got registered on July 17 in 2005.
