BANGLADESH

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has served legal notices on the former railway minister's sacked Assistant Personal Secretary (APS) Omar Faruq Talukder and four others asking them to submit the details of their properties within seven working days.

Those facing action for their alleged involvement in the cash recovery scandal are Railway General Manager (East) Yusuf Ali Mridha and his wife, and suspended Dhaka zone railway police's Commandant Enamul Huq and his wife.

"According to our primary investigation, they've properties beyond their known sources of income. So, they were served notices on Monday asking them to submit details of their properties," ACC Commissioner Mohammad Sahabuddin Chuppu told .

Border Guard Bangladesh personnel detained Faruk, Mridha and Enamul when a car carrying them entered the BGB headquarters in Peelkhana in the wee hours of Apr 10. BGB men recovered Tk 7 million from the car. However, they were later released, along with the money and the vehicle.

Several newspaper reports said the money was taken as bribe for making appointments in the railways.

Faruq, Mridha and Enamul were suspended following the incident.

Taking responsibility for the incident, Suranjit stepped down as the railway minister on April 16, but the government retained him as a minister without portfolio.

The Railway Department formed an investigation committee over the cash scandal that submitted its findings on Sunday. The probe report claimed that former Railway Minister Suranjit Sengupta was not involved in the scandal.

It said that there was Tk 7 million in Faruk's car which he deposited in his bank account. Mridha and Enamul were also not involved in the incident, the report said.

The ACC had also formed a two-member committee led by its Deputy Director Abu Syed to investigate into the scandal and the related aspects.

On Apr 18, Mridha, Faruk and Enamul appeared before the ACC investigators and gave their statements.

Railway Minister Suranjit Sengupta today said he fired his assistant private secretary (APS) and ordered suspension of two railway officials and the

department's ongoing recruitment process as investigations were underway into the last week's midnight cash scandal.

Speaking at an unscheduled press briefing at his office, for the second time in three days, Sengupta also reiterated his earlier stance about the possible resignation saying, he would not hesitant to quit if investigations found his involvement in the scam.

"I told you earlier, it is not a big thing for a politician to earn a position and it is also to quit it," he said.

He said he fired his APS Omar Faruq as "I have the power to sack my APS" while the ministry suspended railway general manager Yusuf Ali Mridha and divisional commandant of its security force Enamul Huq on the basis of their statements before an investigation committee.

Sengupta said the trio would face departmental and judicial cases to be filed under the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules 1985 while officials familiar with the situation said Mridha and Haque were asked not leave Dhaka until further orders.

The development came hours after Mridha and Haque appeared before an investigation committee of the ministry as summoned for their statements while Faruq apparently preferred to ignore the summon as he did not appear for the committee headed by a joint secretary.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Bank officials said they were set to issue a directive asking all commercial banks to freeze Faruq's bank accounts and examine the accounts of the two others.

In a related development Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) today said it launched an investigation into the Monday night's scandal and the alleged "recruitment trade" in the railway ministry.

According to earlier reports Sengupta's official aide and the two railway officials were going to the minister's residence at around midnight Monday when their car driver suddenly pulled the vehicle over to the high security Border Guard Bangladesh's (BGB) Pilkhana headquarters where he told the border guards that there was stashes of bribe money inside the car.

An amount said to be as high as Taka 70 lakh with no known source of origin, was reportedly found in their possession but the border guards freed them along with the amount next morning after overnight grilling.

Meanwhile, approached by newsmen as he came out after giving statements before the committee, Mridha said the said amount did not belong to him and he was ready to face investigations of any kind about the allegations.

Sengupta, a veteran parliamentarian and senior leader of ruling Awami League, earlier said he had no link to the said stash of money and feared an organized gang

deliberately was orchestrating a campaign to dislodge him as he spearheads a campaign to uproot "40 years of accumulated anomalies and corruption in the railway".