ACC sues Inu, Hasan Mahmud, 6 others over Betar mural graft

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has filed a case against eight, including ex-information ministers Inu and Hasan Mahmud, over alleged embezzlement of Tk6.65 crore in the Bangladesh Betar Bangabandhu mural project.

ACC Assistant Director Md Mostafizur Rahman filed the case as plaintiff yesterday with the ACC's Integrated District Office, Dhaka-1. ACC Secretary Md Saidur Rahman Khan confirmed the information.

The other accused are former Bangladesh Betar Director Generals AKM Nesar Uddin Bhuiyan and Narayan Chandra Shil, Deputy Station Engineer Md Abdur Rahman, former Bangladesh Betar Senior Engineer Md Zakir Hossain, Md Nasir Uddin Ahmed, the then acting secretary and chairman of the project steering committee and Project Director Prabal Kanti Das. They have been charged under Sections 409 and 109 of the Penal Code and Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947.

According to the first information report (FIR), on 24 August 2014, Kazi Zakir Hasan and Malay Kumar Ganguly, on behalf of artists of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra, applied to install a sculpture of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Bangladesh Betar's Agargaon centre. 

Later, on 21 April 2016, Bangladesh Betar officials decided to seek administrative approval and prepare a design for building a Bangabandhu complex inside the National Broadcasting building. On 19 May, same year, the then Director General AKM Nesar Uddin Bhuiyan sent a recommendation to the Ministry of Information seeking administrative approval for the Bangabandhu complex. 

Later, at various ministry meetings, it was decided to install a Bangabandhu mural under the project to relocate Bangladesh Betar's Shahbagh complex to Agargaon and modernise it.

The FIR further states that at a project steering committee meeting on 9 January 2018, a proposal was made to spend Tk7 crore on the mural. On 24 January of the same year, at a meeting chaired by then Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu, it was decided to install the mural under the project. Later, at the fourth meeting of the project steering committee on 28 February 2018, it was noted that including the mural in the project was justified, and a decision was taken to estimate the cost.

The ACC alleges that on 7 May 2019, on the instruction of then Director General Narayan Chandra Shil, the official cost of building the bronze mural was estimated at Tk5.78 crore. On 14 January 2020, Project Director Prabal Kanti Das issued a work order for the construction through a tender at Tk5.78 crore.

On 9 December 2020, at a meeting chaired by the then Information Minister Mohammad Hasan Mahmud, the design of the bronze mural of Bangabandhu was approved.

According to the FIR, the contractor who won the work order received a total of Tk6.65 crore through nine bills up to 12 June 2024. However, during its investigation, the ACC inspected Bangladesh Betar's Agargaon centre and found no trace of the mural.

The ACC alleges that the mural was not an essential part of the project but was included irregularly through collusion among the accused. It says this abuse of power and criminal misconduct caused the government a financial loss of Tk6.65 crore.

Speaking on the matter, the ACC secretary said the revised Development Project Proposal (DPP) guidelines state that a project's DPP can be revised if a component is essential, but building the bronze statue was not essential. He said it was built in violation of the guidelines, thereby causing financial loss to the government.