Mizan, Basir jailed in bribery case

PBC News:  A court in Dhaka has sentenced suspended deputy inspector general (DIG) of police Mizanur Rahman and ACC director Khandaker Enamul Basir to jail for three years and eight years respectively in a graft case.

The court gave the jail terms under two separate sections.

Judge Sheikh Nazmul Alam of Dhaka Special court-4 pronounced the verdict on Wednesday in presence of the convicts.

Besides, Basir was fined Tk 80 lakh.

On January 24, Mosharraf Hossain Kajol, prosecutor of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), demanded highest punishment for them as per law.

On January 3, the two pleaded “not guilty” in the case.

Mizan was an additional commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP). He was removed from the post on January 9, 2019, after he was accused of abducting a 25-year-old female anchor of a private news channel and forcibly marrying her.

He had also allegedly implicated her in a false case in which she was arrested and sent to judicial custody for three weeks.

The corruption case dates back to June 24, 2019, when ACC director Manjur Morshed lodged a complaint against the disgraced DIG, his wife Sohelia Anar Ratna, nephew sub-inspector Mahmudul Hasan and younger brother Mahbubur Rahman.

According to the case statement, Mizan accumulated wealth worth Tk 3.28 crore beyond his known sources of income. On the other hand, he had declared wealth worth Tk 3.7 crore in his tax statement.

Then director of ACC, Basir, was made the investigating officer in the case.

During the probe, Mizan had accused Basir of demanding Tk 40 lakh as bribe for setting the case, prompting the Commission to appoint director Monjur Morshed as the investigating officer in the case.

At the same time, a three-member probe body was formed, led by ACC director Sheikh Mohammad Fanafillah, to look into the allegations of bribery.

On July 16, 2019, Fanafillah lodged a complaint against both Mizan and Basir. And on April 16, 2020, a Dhaka court indicted the two and directed the official beginning of the trial in the case.

Another case is currently under trial against four people, including Mizan, filed over accumulation of ill-gotten assets and money laundering at the Dhaka Special Judge Court-6.