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Railwaygate Scandal

Tk 70 lakh not Suranjit aide’s

Anti-graft body suspects GM Mridha brought it from Ctg

Kailash Sarkar
The Anti-Corruption Commission suspects that Yusuf Ali Mridha had brought Tk 70 lakh from Chittagong to Dhaka on April 9 and passed it to Omar Faruq, the sacked aide of the former railway I NEWS
minister.
On the night of April 9, the amount was first being carried on the private car of Mridha, the suspended railway general manager (east). The money was then moved to Faruq's microbus at the capital's Dhanmondi-3, ACC's primary investigation has found.
Ever since the railwaygate scandal involving the recovery of Tk 70 lakh broke late that night, Faruq has all along claimed the money was his. Mridha, on the other hand, repeatedly claimed he had no knowledge of any money being carried in the vehicle.
To verify their claims, the ACC yesterday decided to summon Mridha's driver Mokhlesur Rahman who had driven the private car up to Dhanmondi.
The anti-graft body will send Mokhlesur, a government employee, a notice today, asking him to appear before the ACC officials on April 25, ACC officials told The Daily Star yesterday.
Border force members seized the money after Faruq's driver Ali Azam Khan drove the microbus into Pilkhana headquarters in the capital around 11:30pm on April 9. Apart from Faruq and Mridha, another top railway official Enamul Huq was in the microbus.
Reportedly, the money is part of the bribe taken from railway job seekers, and the microbus was headed for Suranjit's Jigatola residence.
It may be mentioned that Faruq deposited Tk 70 lakh in his Mercantile Bank's Dhanmondi branch account onAprilll.
The railwaygate scandal has cost Suranjit Sengupta his railway job. Barely five months into taking over as railway minister, he announced his resignation on April 16 taking "full responsibility" for the scam.
The cash haul drew huge flak from different quarters, prompting the ACC, railway ministry and railway to open separate investigations into the source of the money and the alleged recruitment business in the railway.
The ACC formed a three-member committee to look into the source of the money, the reported recruitment trade and the wealth of Faruq, Mridha and Enamul.
ACC officials told this paper yesterday they had gathered that Mridha came to Dhaka from Chittagong
with the money in the morn-ingofApril9.
"He [Mridha] started from his residence at Kamalapur Railway Officers' Quarters for the minister's Jigatola house along with his driver Mokhlesur Rahman and [suspended] Dhaka division security commandant Enamul.
"On the way to the minister's house, the GM stopped at his father-in-law's residence at Dhanmondi-3 around 10:00pm where Faruq and his microbus driver Azam joined in. From there Mridha and Enamul boarded the microbus with the money, and Mridha asked his driver to return home," said anACC official.
Two ACC officials close to the ongoing investigation said they would interrogate Mridha's driver to crosscheck some information such as from where the money was picked up in Mridha's car and then moved to Faruq's microbus.
This correspondent called Mridha over the cell phone several times and sent a text message requesting his comment on the matter, but he neither received the calls nor responded to the message.
On Saturday, Mridha, Faruq and Enamul appeared before the ACC investigators and gave their statements.
Following his appearance before the probe team, Faruq told reporters that the Tk 70 lakh recovered from his vehicle was his personal money.
On the same day, Mridha and Enamul claimed to journalists that they had no knowledge that there was money in the vehicle.
Faruq in his written statement to the ACC claimed that of the Tk 70 lakh, he had earned Tk 45 lakh through practicing law and got the rest Tk 25 lakh from his expatriate brother-in-law, who gave him the amount by exchanging foreign currencies.
The commission, however, did not accept his explanation and asked him to provide proof of both the claims.
On April 11, Enamul in an interview with The Daily Star claimed he had accompanied Mridha as he was asked to.
"As my boss [Mridha] asked me to accompany him to the minister's house, I followed the order," Enamul said, "We went to a house at Dhanmondi-3 by the GM’s car. We then left the car and got on the microbus of the APS [Faruq]."