UNB, Dhaka :A court here on Tuesday issued a warrant for the arrest of five people, including former Housing and Public Works Minister Mirza Abbas, in a graft case filed by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC).Imrul Kayes, Judge of the Dhaka’s Senior Special Judge Court, came up with the arrest warrant after taking cognisance of charges.The court also fixed March 25 for submitting a report on the execution of the arrest warrant.The other accused are former State Minister for Housing and Public Works Alamgir Kabir, former joint secretary Bijon Kanti Sarker, office assistant of the National Housing Authority (NHA) M Matiar Rahman and its cashier Mansur Alam.On February 16, Jatan Kumar Roy, deputy director of the ACC and also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet to the Metropolitan Magistrate court of Dhaka against the five people in connection with the case filed for causing a loss of Tk 15.52 crore to the national exchequer by allocating land to journalists at a lower rate.The case was filed on March 6, 2014. On February 10, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) approved the charge sheet. BNP leader Mirza Abbas was the Housing and Public Works Minister during the allocation of land while Alamgir Kabir was junior minister for Housing and Public Works.According to the case statement, former junior minister Alamgir Kabir sent a letter to the then Prime Minister in 2002 with a request for building a housing area for journalists, writers, artists and cultural activists without receiving any application from them.In response, the then Prime Minister sent the letter to the Housing and Public Works secretary asking him to take steps as per the rules. As the matter was under process, Alamgir Kabir directed the Housing and Public Works secretary to allocate the land from a previously designed housing area.Without taking permission from the ministry, the accused NHA officials for their personal gains allocated seven acres of land in city’s Mirpur area to the Dhaka Journalists Cooperatives Limited at only Tk 3.39 crore against the “market value” of Tk 19 crore, violating the amended housing policy of 1993.
