Birth, death registrations fees: N'ganj UP chairman accused of embezzling Tk33lakh

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has lodged a case against Ehsan Uddin Ahmed, chairman of the Narayanganj union parishad, for allegedly embezzling Tk33.72 lakh from the state coffer. 

Monowarul Islam, assistant director of the Dhaka ACC office, filed the case on Tuesday. 

Besides Ehsan, two other former secretaries of the parishad -Shamim Mia and Mohammad Yusuf- have also been accused in the case, Assistant Director of the district ACC office Omar Farooq told The Business Standard.

The accused have already been summoned, he said, adding that Shamim Mia is currently serving as Daudpur Union secretary of Sonargaon Upazila.

According to the case, from July 2015 to June 2018, the two former secretaries and the UP chairman embezzled Tk33.72 lakh from birth and death registrations fees instead of depositing the money in the government treasury.

Besides, there is evidence that one of the three accused created two IDs in his name. He issued certificates through one and committed fraud using the other.

Contacted, UP Chairman Ehsan claimed that this was done by his secretaries Mohammad Yusuf and Shamim Mia. 

"Because of them, I fell into this trap. I was convinced that they had been depositing the money properly in the public exchequer. But they submitted to me fake slips with forged signatures. It was my fault that I didn't check it out properly," he said.

Ehsan also claimed that he could only detect the fraud only when Yusuf was replaced by another secretary, stating that Yusuf had already served a jail term over a fraud case. 

"I have all the proof. I will submit it at the appropriate place," he added.