The ACC retreated after investigating the financial transactions of 116 religious speakers.
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| Secretary of the organization briefed reporters at the ACC head office in Segunbagicha on Thursday. Mahbub Hossain |
According to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), no decision has been made to look into the 116 clerics and religious speakers' allegedly questionable money transactions. The 2,215-page white paper that the People's Commission submitted to the commission will, however, be examined by an internal committee. After considering the committee's summary, the commission will decide what to do.
Thursday at noon at the commission secretary's office at the ACC headquarters in Segunbagicha. The journalists were given this information by Mahbub Hossain.
Under the headline "Namal ACC probes financial transactions of 116 religious speakers," an article on the subject was published in Prothom Alo's online and today's newspaper. It claimed that the mass commission's claims regarding the dubious money transactions of 116 religious speakers had been taken into account by the anti-corruption commission.
Under the direction of ACC director Syed Iqbal Hossain, a three-person investigation team has been assembled to look into the claims. The other two representatives are Md. Ahsanul Kabir and Mohammad Ibrahim, Deputy Director of the ACC. The three officers have also received official letters in this regard.
The Commission has decided to send a three-member team from the Special Investigation and Investigation Branch to the Director General (Special Investigation) to respectfully approve the investigation and take necessary steps to investigate, according to the official letter from the ACC to the three officials on June 21.
At midday, Mahbub Hossain, the secretary of the commission, provided a briefing on the breaking news. According to him, if any evidence of corruption is discovered during the commission's investigation of the complaints it has received and it is listed in the commission law's schedule, it is brought to the commission for permission of further investigation. An internal committee has been formed to review the Killer Brokers Eradication Committee's 2,215-page white paper.
Either the commission chose to investigate or the committee was not given the authority to do so. The committee won't start any initiatives involving the money dealings of religious professors or speakers.
The panel's secretary warned that the public would become confused as a result of some media sources' reports that the committee had chosen to look into the financial dealings of 116 academicians. The genuine problem was presented for everyone's knowledge in order to clear up this confusion.
The journalists questioned the secretary about the search order in the e-document, which is still on the commission's server, citing the letter of the commission's office order in this respect. How do you refute that? E-documents are a commission internal concern, Secretary Mahbub Hossain responded. You shouldn't be aware of it. We'll see what happens.
Without asking any further questions, the commission secretary then closed the briefing.
In response to allegations made by the People's Commission for the Elimination of Killers of 1971 and the People's Commission for the Investigation of Radical and Communal Terrorism, both of which were started by people fighting for the rights of minorities, the commission decided to look into the financial dealings of 116 religious speakers, according to a number of reliable sources.
The daily and current complaints of the commission typically go to the cell once any charge of corruption is made, according to ACC sources. Director General AKM Sohail and Director Uttam Kumar Mandal are the cell's two leaders. Six officers and 20 employees at various levels work with the Verification and Selection Committee (JABAC) to list the complaints in the Daily and Recent Complaints Cell. When a complaint first passed muster with the verification and selection committee, it was forwarded to the commission for approval. Director General AKM Sohail, Member Secretary Director Uttam Kumar Mandal, and Member Deputy Director Imrul Kayes make up the three-person selection committee.
The verification-selection committee did not decide to look into the money dealings of 116 religious speakers, according to the pertinent sources. It appointed a Director General with unique responsibility and assembled a three-person team to look into the Daily and Recent Complaints Cell (Special Investigation). The commission's electronic materials contain the entire process. But the panel changed its mind about looking into the incident when the upper levels of the administration became aware of it. After 2:00 pm, the commission typically holds news conferences. The briefing, however, was conducted on an emergency basis this afternoon.
High-ranking commission members declined to comment on the incident. However, the commission has a meeting in the afternoon, according to Muhammad Arif Sadeq, the deputy director (public relations) of the commission. Therefore, it has been requested to set up a briefing soon. Confusion could result if it were absent. It is untrue that the panel has chosen to look into the financial dealings of 116 religious speakers, notwithstanding what is being said in the rumors.
