Staff Reporter :
Four of the six accused in the money laundering case filed against five North South University Board of Trustees (BoT) including, its Chairman Azim Uddin Ahmed, and another one have already been sent to the jail by the court. However, remaining two accused including BoT Chairman are absconding till now.
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan said, the ACC and other law enforcers are searching them to arrest. They will be arrested as soon as they are found, added the lawyer.
Sources said, BoT Chairman Azim Uddin Ahmed is lobbying with the high ups of the government to get acquited from the charge brought against him in the case by
the Anti-Corruption Commission. Azim Uddin Ahmed and others are continuing various efforts to get release of the charges brought against them in the case after several failed attempts to flee abroad due to the court’s ban. In the mean time, the trustees accused of misappropriation of money were frustrated by contacting some of the government’s policy makers.
It is learnt that the high ups of the government are not interested to involve themselves in this case for fear of tarnishing their image as there are various allegations against the trustees such as document forgery of the Prime Minister’s Office, terrorist financing, purchase of luxury cars with university funds.
Apart from this, the people concerned do not want to involve themselves in this money launderung case as it made a huge controversy nationwide.
The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case on May 5 in 2022 with the ACC’s integrated office in Dhaka against six persons including five trustees of the NSU on charge of misappropriation of Tk 3.03 billion during purchasing a land for the institution.
According to the case statement, bypassing the North South University Syndicate, University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Ministry of Education, some members of the Board of Trustees of the university purchased 9096.88 decimal of land in the name of campus development paying extra charge of Tk 3.03 billion which was later embezzled.
Among the accused, university’s four trustees, MA Kashem, Benajir Ahmed, Rehana Rahman and Moahammad Shajahan, filed the anticipatory bail petition with the High Court on May 16.
Upon hearing the petition the High Court on May 22 sent four trustees of the North South University under the police custody of the Shahbagh Police Station in Dhaka after rejecting their anticipatory bail petition filed in the corruption case.
The Officer in Charge of the Shahbagh Police Station was asked to place the accused trustees to the concerned lower court within 24 hours from the time of taking them in their custody.
The High Court bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo passed the order after holding hearing on the petition filed by the trustees.
Later the four trustees, MA Kashem, Benajir Ahmed, Rehana Rahman and Moahammad Shajahan, were produced in the court, and after hearing a Dhaka court rejected their bail petition and sent them to jail on June 20.
However, two of the accused including BoT Chairman are still absconding and did not surrender in the court. The court will hold next hearing in the case on July 25 this year.
ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan in the High Court hearing said, “Attempts to launder money is also a crime under the Money Laundering Prevention Act. So it is logical to sue on the basis of assumption. The case was filed after the ACC’s own investigation. Now the investigation may find evidence of more embezzlement.”
“Apart from that, the accused who sought bail have committed financial crimes in an organized manner. They have committed this crime by creating a cycle. In this case, there is no opportunity to see the crime of each accused in isolation or in person. They have turned a non-profit educational institution into a commercial institution,” the ACC lawyer also argued.
