The Anti-Corruption Commission has launched an inquiry into the allegations of forgery in obtaining passports by former inspector general of police Benazir Ahmed and his family members.
The allegations are that Benazir took passports from the Department of Immigration and Passports through falsification of identity.
As a part of the inquiry, the ACC on Tuesday interrogated eight passport officials who were involved in the process of issuing five passports to Benazir and his family.
A team of commission officials led by its deputy director, Hafizul Islam, questioned the eight officials at the ACC headquarters in Dhaka from 11:30am to 3:30pm.
ACC deputy director for public relations Aktarul Islam confirmed about the interrogation.
The eight DIP officials are Md Mohsin Islam, Abu聽 Md Motaleb Hossain, Abdul Jalil Mandal, Munshi Ikram, Abdullah Al Mamun, Abu Nayeem Masum, Shahidur Rahman, and Subash Chandra Roy.
They are director, deputy director and assistant director level staff of the passport department.
On June 13, the ACC sent a letter to the DIP director general inquiring about the officials who were involved with the process of issuing five passports to Benazir, his wife Jissan Mirza, and his two daughters, Farhan Rista and Tahseen Raisa.
Allegations are there that Benazir obtained an ordinary passport despite being a public servant.
He reportedly concealed his police identity in his passport, did not receive a blue official passport, nor did he opt for a red passport for himself as a top government official, and instead obtained a passport identifying himself as a private service holder.
Reportedly, Benazir鈥檚 false identity as a private employee was revealed by the DIP during its renewal when it blocked the passport and sent a letter to the RAB headquarters for scrutiny.
But the former IGP managed to manoeuvre the situation abusing his influence and power and secured the passport without visiting the passport office.
It was reported that Benazir applied for the renewal of his old handwritten passport on October 11, 2010.
Instead of taking the blue official passport, Benazir took an ordinary one falsely introducing himself as a private employee in the application form.
A review of the documents reveals that Benazir was issued a renewed Machine Readable Passport on October 14, 2010, with an expiry date of October 13, 2015.
He had applied for passport renewal again in 2014 and 2016 before they expired, again introducing himself as a private employee.
Earlier on April 18, the ACC, based on a media report, decided to investigate allegations of amassing illegal wealth and money laundering by the former police chief and his family.
As a part of the inquiry, a Dhaka court ordered the seizure of a total of 697 bigha of land, 12 flats in Dhaka, and shares in 21 companies in the name of Benazir and his family.聽
The court also ordered the freezing of a Tk 30 lakh investment in savings certificates, 33 bank accounts, and three BO (Beneficiary Owner鈥檚) accounts.
Benazir Ahmed and his family, who are now staying aboard, also eschewed ACC summons to appear before it.