Desk Report,
Former surveyor of Chittagong LA branch jailed in corruption case
The court has sent Md. Selim, a former surveyor of the Land Acquisition Wing (LA) of the Chittagong Deputy Commissioner’s Office, to jail in a case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). Judge Mizanur Rahman of the Chittagong Divisional Special Judge’s Court gave the order after the hearing on Wednesday afternoon.
Former surveyor of Chittagong LA branch jailed in corruption case
Court bench assistant Shahed Kabir told Prothom Alo that although the accused Selim was on bail from the High Court, his period had expired. When the accused appeared on the scheduled date of the case and applied for bail, the court rejected it and sent the accused to jail.
The ACC said that on November 7, 2019, former chainman (chain carrier) of the Chittagong Deputy Commissioner’s Office Nazrul Islam and office assistant of the Deputy Commissioner’s Office Taslim Uddin were caught by the ACC at a shop owned by his (Nazrul) wife in the Chittagong Shopping Complex in Nagar. At that time, Nazrul was found with 8 lakh 7 thousand taka in cash and 91 lakh 83 thousand taka in checks taken from various land owners for bribes. The ACC filed a case in this incident. After being caught, Nazrul and Taslim were dismissed from their jobs. After a four-and-a-half-year investigation, the ACC filed a chargesheet in the case on September 25 last year. In addition to Nazrul and Taslim, the chargesheet also named former surveyor of the LA branch Md. Selim, broker Nasir Ahmed and former manager (operations) of the Muradpur branch of the United Commercial Bank (UCBL) in the city Ibrahim Mia as accused. Among the accused, Nazrul and Taslim are on bail, while Ibrahim is absconding. Nasir Ahmed has died. Nazrul Islam, the chainman (chain bearer) of the Chittagong District Commissioner’s office, used to take lakhs of taka in advance in bribes, that too through checks. Despite being a class IV employee, the Land Acquisition (LA) branch was largely under his control. His bribery business revolved around people who came to collect compensation money for land acquired under various government projects. In some cases, bribes of 10 to 20 percent of the compensation money were taken, and in some cases, more. Surveyor Salim was Nazrul’s associate.
