HC asks ACC how many accused Iqbal Mahmood exonerated  

The High Court (HC), Tuesday, wanted to know how many people have been cleared of graft accusations by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in the last five months of ACC Chairman Iqbal Mahmood's tenure.

The court directed the ACC to file a report by 11 April in this regard.

A national daily recently published news titled "ACC inquiry business: Iqbal Mahmood exonerated many bigshots."

The HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Mohi Uddin Shamim passed the order as Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin Manik brought the report to the notice of the court.

The court also directed the newspaper authorities to submit the documents and evidence for the report.  

The HC would issue the next order after receiving the ACC report, Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin later told the press.

ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan – who was present in the court during the ruling – told reporters that he would inform the ACC about the HC order. After preparing the report, it would be presented before the court.   

According to the news, former ACC Chairman Iqbal Mahmood exonerated a number of big fish before leaving office.

"Some innocent people were framed to cover up the exonerations. More than 200 individuals and organisations were cleared of corruption charges in the five months," mentioned the report.      

HC wants to know about Sadharan Bima embezzlement

The deputy attorney general included another news report titled "Scam at Sadharan Bima Corporation, Tk26 crore embezzled in ten years" in the notice to the same bench.   

After taking the report into cognisance, the court asked the authorities to submit a report by 11 April.

The court also directed daily Prothom Alo – which ran the report – to submit the documents and evidence.

According to the report, a syndicate embezzled Tk26.15 crore from state-owned Sadharan Bima Corporation. A top official of the corporation led the scam. Though it continued for more than ten years, the corporation was unaware of this.      

The embezzlement was revealed recently in a report prepared by the corporation.