The Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Court on Monday ordered the Anti-Corruption Commission to freeze 57 bank accounts of former social welfare minister Nuruzzaman Ahmed and his wife Hosne Ara Begum over graft allegations.
Besides, the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court on the day placed five members of an alleged fraud gang on a two-day remand for interrogation in a case filed on charges of taking money from people posing as ACC officials.
Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Md Jakir Hossain passed an order asking the ACC to freeze 57 bank accounts of Nuruzzaman Ahmed and his wife Hosne Ara Begum following a petition from the ACC.
Of the accounts, 32 are with deposits worth Tk 6.26 crore in the name of Nuruzzaman, while 25 belong to his wife Hosne Ara with deposits worth Tk 81.65 lakh.
The court also ordered the seizure of three plots of the couple -- one in Purbachal in Dhaka and two in Lalmonirhat.
The ACC on February 3, 2025 filed three separate cases against Nuruzzaman Ahmed, his wife Hosne Ara Begum and their son Rakibuzzaman.
On January 30, police arrested Nuruzzaman, also a former Awami League lawmaker for Lalmonirhat-2 constituency, from Rangpur city over various cases.
Meanwhile, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Saifuzzaman granted two-day remand for five people in a case filed on charges of cheating people posing as ACC officials.
Those remanded are Selim, 40, Md Tarikul Islam, 40, Md Atik, 38, Md Abdul Hai Sohagh, 35, and Md Sohagh Patwari, 40.
Earlier, the members of the law enforcing agencies arrested Sohagh Patwari on Sunday and rests of the accused were arrested on Saturday night.
The arrestees used to cheat people with promises to free them from the cases with the ACC introducing themselves as ACC chair, director general, and other high officials.
ACC director general (prevention) Akhtar Hossain said that a Facebook status of Hasnat Abdullah, chief organiser (South) of the National Citizens Party, had drawn the attention of the ACC.
The ACC then decided to conduct an inquiry into the allegation and an ACC inquiry team led by an ACC director identified the gang and arrested them in the capital.
Later, ACC assistant director Sazzad Hossain filed the case with the Ramna police station in the capital on Sunday over the incident.
On June 24 night, Hasnat posted a Facebook status, along with three video clips, claiming 鈥業n independent Bangladesh, ACC鈥檚 tea bill is Tk 1 lakh鈥�.
He alleged that although there were no formal allegations of graft against a person, an ACC clearance was offered in exchange for Tk 1 lakh.
In the post he wrote, 鈥楻ecently, Mahamuda Mitu was asked for this money by a man introducing him as an ACC official. She was told, 鈥榊ou are a doctor, you shouldn鈥檛 have any shortage of money 鈥� just pay Tk 1 lakh and get the clearance.鈥�
Amid criticism over the Facebook post, the ACC issued a statement clarifying that no ACC official was involved in the misconduct.
