BASHUNDHARA MURDER BRIBERY CASE
Charges pressed against Tarique, Babar, others
Courtesy New Age 7/5/08
The Anti-Corruption Commi-ssion on Wednesday pressed charges against the detained former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s eldest son Tarique Rahman, former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar, Bashundhara Group chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, also known as Shah Alam, and five others regarding bribery of Tk 21 crore to cover up the murder of a company director.
This is the third charge sheet filed against Tarique, also the senior joint secretary general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, who faces 10 cases, including four related to corruption, after his arrest on March 8, 2007.
Charges were pressed against Tarique a day after charges had been pressed against his mother, Khaleda Zia, also the BNP chairman, in the Niko corruption case.
His counsel said the proceedings in all but the latest case had been stayed by the High Court.
The investigation officer of the Bashundhara murder bribery case, Rupak Kumar Saha, also the commission’s deputy assistant director, filed the charge sheet with the court of additional chief metropolitan magistrate Golam Rabbani, also against former BNP lawmaker Kazi Salimul Huq Kamal, Shah Alam’s two sons, Safiyat Sobhan Sanbir and Shahadat Sobhan, Bashundhara director Abu Sufian and Tarique’s private secretary Miah Nuruddin Apu.
Of the eight, Tarique, Babar and Sufian are in custody. Others are in hiding. On April 23, the commission decided to press charges against the eight.
Tarique and Salimul, also the owner of the GQ Ballpoint, were not named in the first information report of the case filed by the commission’s deputy assistant director Abul Kashem with the Ramna police on October 4, 2007.
The charge sheet said the bribe was taken from Shah Alam for the police not to file the charge sheet, to destroy evidences and stop any police action against the accused in the Sabbir murder case.
On July 4, 2006, Humayun Kabir Sabbir, 30, a director of the Bashundhara Telecommuni-cations Limited, was killed.
Babar allegedly demanded Tk 100 crore from Shah Alam to cover up the killing. Shah Alam, however, agreed to pay Tk 50 crore, of which Tk 21 crore ‘has already been paid,’ the charge sheet said.
The investigation officer pressed charges against Tarique for plotting the bribery to save Shah Alam’s son Safiyat Sanbir from the murder charge and the charge of helping the other accused in committing the offences as he was then a powerful man in the ruling party.
Tarique helped Babar to take Tk 21 crore from Shah Alam in bribe and he also took Tk 1 crore from the amount through his associate Miah Nuruddin Apu, the charge sheet said.
Abu Sufian, also a BNP candidate in the 1991 national elections, handed over the money to Apu at Hawa Bhaban on August 20, 2006 at the directive of Babar,’ the charge sheet said.
Of the Tk 20 crore, Tk 5 crore was paid in cash and Tk 15 crore by 20 cheques. The money was kept with a Prime Bank account of Salimul. The money was transacted through Abu Sufian, according to the charge sheet.
The charge sheet also said on August 7 and 8, 2006, Babar and Tarique had meetings with Shah Alam and Abu Sufian in the government residence of Babar on
Sufian between August 13 and August 22 paid Tk 20 core to Babar at his residence on
He said Sufian could not pay the remaining amount of the bribe as the BNP government handed power over to the caretaker government on October 28, 2006.
Twenty-eight people, including some bank officials, were named as prosecution witnesses in the case.
Babar was arrested on May 28 on various charges. The Bashundhara Group chairman along with the family was hiding in
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