Former Gazipur City Corporation mayor Jahangir Alam had claimed himself innocent and said he was being harassed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
“I have not committed any corruption. ACC is harassing me for no valid reason,” he told journalists while visiting the ACC head office on Sunday.
In 2018, he was elected as the Gazipur City Corporation mayor by a huge number of votes. After three years, he said he was fired illegally through a letter sent from Dhaka. He said he did not receive any benefit including honorarium from the government during these three years.
He said: “The government had allotted me only Tk600 to Tk700 crore for two projects. But various departments including the ACC and local government ministries have made fictitious allegations of corruption worth Tk7,500 crores against me.”
He said: “The GCC election will be held on May 25. Election campaign is going on. My mother, Zayeda Khatun, is an independent mayoral candidate in the upcoming GCC polls. Today (Sunday) and tomorrow (Monday) are the last days of the election campaign. During the election campaign, the ACC forced me to come to the ACC head office. A group is using ACC to harass me.”
On May 18, Jahangir Alam asked for one month’s time to explain his position and collect related records to support his statement. However, ACC was requiring his statement as the investigation was in its final stage. ACC said that he was summoned for this reason. ACC also claimed that it has nothing to do with the election.
The notice sent to the Jahangir has asked him to appear at the ACC head office at Segunbagicha in Dhaka on May 21-22 on charges of illegal money transactions, embezzlement of crores through irregularities and corruption in various projects and acquisition of illegal assets.
Two separate investigation teams led by ACC Deputy Director Ali Akbar summoned Jahangir Alam. The other two members of the two teams are ACC Assistant Director Md Aliaz Hossain and Md Ashiqur Rahman.
In this regard, on May 17, the secretary of the organization Mahbub Hossain said: “The investigation of ACC started with one complaint of 2020 and another complaint of 2022 under the direction of the High Court.
Many people have already spoken about the complaints. Many documents have also been collected.”
