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Govt, not ACC, made arrest decisions

Lt Gen Mashhud says about graft suspects

Staff Correspondent
Lt Gen (retd) Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury, the chief of AntiCorruption Commission (ACC), yesterday said the government, not the ACC, made all the arrest orders in the ACC cases.
"We (the ACC) are not interested in arrests. The arrests are being made as per government orders, Mashhud said during his monthly routine press briefing at the ACC headquarters yesterday afternoon.
The chief of the corruption watchdog made the comment when he was asked why Sadeque 1 lossain Khoka. the mayor of Dhaka City Corporation, was not arrested despile an ACC case filed against him lastmondi.
When the instances of arrests such as the one of former premier and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was brought to his attention, the ACC boss said the issue of arresting any person never came up in any discussion of the commission and "we did not give the arrest orders. Arrests are not a major issue or have any significance to an ACC case."
Meanwhile, the ACC has decided to ask the government make necessary arrangements for talks between the ACC and different ministries and directorates of the government as well as semi-govemment institutions regarding corruption and irregularities.
Regarding arrests under Emergency Power Rules (EPR), Mashhud said, "At present, we are not interested in applying the EPR under the presumption that if we get too dependant on applying the EPR, we won't be able to work comfortably. We have to continue with our work after the EPRis withdrawn."
He said the ACC can, however, arrest anyone under special circumstances when someone has the scope to flee the country or has the capability to influence a case filed against him or her. The commission can arrest a person without a warrant under section 16 of ACC act, he added.
Regarding the arrests already made, the ACC chief said the motives behind the arrests might be political or used as a measure to maintain control over the situation.
When asked why the arrests were made even though the ACC was not interested in arrests, Mashhud said, "The ones who are giving the orders can better answer this question."
"At this moment we are waiting for the verdict regarding the inclusion of EPR in a case. We do not want to give someone the opportunity to file a writ [petition] with the higher court and waste our time. We do not want to create a situation that would cause hindrance to our cases at the higher court," the ACC chairman said.
Mashhud said charge sheet submission in the Gatco graft case is on hold for the moment as the commission is awaiting verdict regarding the inclusion of EPR in ACC cases.
The ACC yesterday submitted charge sheet in the Niko graft case against Khaleda without brining it under EPR.
When asked why the EPR was applied in the submission of charge sheet in the Gatco graft case, he said they wanted to have all the options open so no one can escape justice. TALKS OVER CORRUPTION IN
THE GOVERNMENT
The ACC is likely to begin talks in this regard this month and will send a letter to the government soon.
"We will sit with the ministries, directorates, and government and semi-govemment institutions by turns to find out what we can do for them regarding corruption and irregularities," said Mashhud.
He also mentioned that the ACC has reached a consensus with the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General to establish a direct communication between the two bodies.
Regarding recruitment of ACC personnel, he said the Public Service Commission (PSC) has completed the necessary groundwork to recruit ACC personnel under the new workforce structure of the ACC and the PSC will forward its recommendations to the cabinet division within a day or two.
Around 30,000 complaints have so far been filed with tire ACC and three teams of the ACC are scrutinizing those currently, the ACC boss told journalists.
"Most of the allegations are related to land disputes, police cases and bribery," said Mashhud adding that the commission however is more interested about complaints that have primary evidence against individuals who turned rich overnight or the instances of power