The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) on Thursday filed a case against former State Minister for Housing and Public Works Alamgir Kabir and three others for reportedly causing a loss of about Tk 15.52 crore to the government by allocating a land to journalists at a lower price.
ACC deputy director Jatan Kumar Roy filed the case with Shagbagh Police Station in the capital. The three other accused named in the case are former deputy director of National Housing Authority (NHA) M Azaharul Haque, NHA office assistant M Matiar Rahman and its cashier Mansur Alam.According to the case statement, former junior minister Alamgir Kabir sent a letter to the then Prime Minister in 2002 with a request for building a housing area for journalists, writers, artists and cultural activists without receiving any application from them.
In response, the then Prime Minister sent the letter to the Housing and Public Works secretary asking him to take steps in this regard following the rules. As it was under process, Alamgir directed the Housing and Public Works secretary to allocate it from a previously designed housing land.
Without taking permission from the ministry, the accused NHA officials for their personal gains allocated seven acres of land in Mirpur area to the Dhaka Journalists Cooperatives Limited at only Tk 3.39 crore against the market value of Tk 19 crore, violating the housing policy 1993 (amended).
The case was filed under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1947. – UNB
