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Railwaygate Scam

ACC, BB start investigation

Minister’s APS, railway GM asked to give statements Sunday

Staff Correspondent
The Anti-Corruption Commission has opened an investigation into the Monday night's money recovery scandal and also the alleged recruitment business in the railwayministry.
A three-member probe body, which was formed on Thursday, has started gathering evidence and talking to the persons involved in the Tk 70 lakh railwaygate scam, ACC officials
told The Daily Star yesterday.
“The commission officials will interview the officials concerned of the railway ministry and will go through the related documents. They can interrogate anybody, from the minister to a peon, if required,” ACC Chairman Ghulam Rahman told this correspondent.
If the allegations are "primarily" established, the anti-graft watchdog will file a First I NEWS
Information Report against the persons involved.
"Then a full inquiry will be launched to unearth everything — the owner of the money, its source and if it was linked with the recruitment business in the ministry as well as the persons involved in the whole affair,” he added.
The railwaygate scandal involves the recovery of Tk 70 lakh from the microbus owned by Omar Faruq Talukder, assistant personal assistant of the Rail Minister Suranjit Sengupta.
At about 11:30pm on Monday, border guard members seized the money and detained Faruq, his driver Ali Azam Khan, Railway General Manager (East) Yusuf Ali Mridha and railway's Dhaka division security officer Enamul Huq after the driver drove the microbus into the BGB Pilkhana headquarters near Dhanmondi in the capital.
Sources say Azam might have created the scene having been refused Tk 5 lakh as share of the amount.
All but the driver was freed by the BGB men on Tuesday, Enamul told The Daily Star at his Kamalapur Railway Station office on Wednesday. The driver remains traceless since.
Reportedly, the Tk 70 lakh was part of the bribe money collected through the recruitment trade over the last few months in the railway ministry, and the microbus carrying the money was headed for Suranjit's Jigatola residence in the capital.
The minister has dismissed the allegation as "an attempt to ruin his image". BANGLADESH BANK PROBE
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Bank yesterday started to probe an abnormal deposit of Tk 70 lakh in Faruq's account with Mercantile Bank's Dhanmondi branch.
Faruq himself deposited the amount on Wednesday, a day after his release from the BGB custody.
Mercantile Bank officials initially refused to receive such a big sum but they were pressurised by some "influential quarters" to collect the deposit.
As part of its regulatory obligation, the bank officials later that day informed the central bank about the unusual transaction,
prompting the BB to look into the matter.
“The Financial Intelligence Unit under the anti-money laundering department has started a probe into the deposit. It will submit a report to the AntiCorruption Commission on its findings,” a top BB official told The Daily Star yesterday. MINISTRYPROBE Meantime, Railway GM (East) Yusuf Ali Mridha and APS Omar Faruq have been asked by the two railway ministry probe committees to appear at the Railway Bhaban at 11:00am tomorrow for interrogation.
Mridha will be interrogated by a two-member committee comprised of Railway Director General Abu Taher and railway's Joint Secretary Shashi Kumar Singha.
Railway minister's Personal Secretary Akhteruzzaman is investigating Faruq's involvement in the scandal. Faruk is a political appointee.
Mridha is said to be somewhere in the capital but Faruq remains traceless. His two cell phones were found switched off yesterday.
Sources in the railway said Shashi Kumar asked Mridha over his mobile phone to come at the Railway Bhaban. “We are sure he is in Dhaka but he didn't give us the address,” said a source.
On the other hand, Faruq has been sent a letter, asking him to appear for the interrogation.
Tawhidur Rahman Palash, security supervisor of Faruq's Mohammadpur Pisciculture apartment received the letter yesterday, said Akhteruzzaman.
He, however, could not say whether the letter reached Faruq. “If he does not turn up on Sunday [tomorrow], we can send him a letter again.”
Different quarters have questioned the committees as both were formed by the railway minister and staffed by the officials of the railway and the railway ministry.
Suranjit declined to include members from other ministry or agency.
“None of the committees will be able to work independently. They cannot work remaining above the influence of the railway minister,” a top railway ministry official said.