ACC director among 3 testify against Aslam Chowdhury in graft case

Three people including director of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) have testified against BNP Joint Secretary General Mohammad Aslam Chowdhury in a case filed against him for not submitting his wealth statement to the ACC within the stipulated time.

They testified in the court of Judge Arafat Hossain of Dhaka’s Special Judge’s Court-4 on Monday (January 29).

The court fixed March 4 as the new date for recording testimony in the case.

Witnesses are ACC director Hrithik Saha, higher division assistant A Z M Hasanuzzaman and constable Asaduzzaman.

With them, four people out of 12 testified against the BNP leader.

On June 8 of 2023, the same court framed charges against BNP leader Aslam Chowdhury in the case.

ACC Deputy Director Md Jahangir Alam, also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet to the court on December 29, 2022.

On December 24 of 2019, ACC Deputy Director Md Nasir Uddin filed the case against the BNP leader with its integrated district office-1 in Dhaka.

According to the case statement, the ACC launched an investigation against Aslam and his wife Jamila Naznin Maola, residents of South Bhatiary under Sitakunda upazila in Chattogram, over amassing hundreds of crores in cash beyond known sources of income.

On May 13 of 2019, Ritwik Saha, a deputy director of the anti-graft body, issued a notice through the Chattogram jail authority asking Aslam to submit the statements of his wealth within seven days. The authority then served the notice upon Aslam on June 23 that year.

On July 1 that year, Aslam sought three months' time to submit his wealth statements to the ACC.

Following the application, the ACC gave him 36 days for submitting his wealth statements.

Aslam on August 19 of 2019 submitted another application, seeking three more months in this regard.

But the ACC on October 15 that year informed the BNP joint secretary general through the jail authorities that no further time would be granted and it decided to file a case against him.