ACC sues DIG Partha over Tk80 lakh seizure

A Dhaka court on Monday sent Partha Gopal Banik, deputy inspector general (prisons) of Sylhet, to jail over the seizure of Tk80 lakh from his Dhanmondi residence.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) officials produced him before the court with a prayer to keep him behind the bars for the sake of an investigation.

Earlier in the day, the graft watchdog filed a case against the DIG over the seizure of the cash.

Salah Uddin Ahmed, assistant director of the graft watchdog, filed the case, confirmed Pranab Kumar Bhattachariya, public relations officer of the commission.

Previously, Partha was in the same role of the Chittagong central jail.

“An investigation into corruption allegations during his period in the Chittagong jail is already underway,” said ACC Secretary Muhammad Delowar Bakht.

He said ACC did not find any valid source of the Tk80 lakh recovered from his house.

“The drive at Partha’s residence was carried out based on information from the ongoing investigation. A case will be filed against him on charge of money laundering, bribery and abuse of power,” he further said.

Meanwhile, Partha, who was arrested immediately after the money was seized from his house on Sunday, claimed that the amount came from his legal earnings. He said Tk30 lakh came from his mother-in-law and the rest was his whole life’s income.

According to ACC Director Muhammad Yousuf, who led Sunday’s drive, the amount is illegal, which was not mentioned in Partha’s tax files.

Partha joined Chittagong central jail as DIG in 2016.

In 2018, Bhairab railway police arrested Chittagong jailer Sohel Rana with about Tk44.40 lakh cash and official documents worth of Tk5 crore.

Sohel claimed that, out of the recovered amount, only Tk5 lakh belonged to him and the rest of the amount was owned by DIG Partho and Prashanta Kumar Banik, senior jail super of Chittagong jail.