Office assistant in Bhola madrasa embezzles stipends of 300 students

A shocking case of corruption has emerged from a Fazil madrasa in Borhanuddin upazila of Bhola, where an office assistant named Kamal Uddin (Miraz) embezzled government stipend funds meant for more than 300 students over several years.

Investigators have found that Kamal pocketed nearly half a crore taka, taking advantage of institutional negligence and weak oversight.

Kamal Uddin joined the Hakimuddin Fazil Madrasa as an office assistant in late 2021 with a monthly salary of only Tk12,000. Within months, his proficiency in IT earned him control over the stipend distribution process, a responsibility delegated to him by the principal.

Although the principal approved student additions and deletions with OTP codes sent to his own phone, Kamal had full authority over data entry — which he exploited by inserting hundreds of fake student names into the system.

According to government rules, every student receiving a stipend must have a registration number, admit card, GPA, and transfer certificate. Shockingly, Kamal managed to produce fake documents for these fictitious students in coordination with similar fraudulent networks in other madrasas of the upazila.

Upazila Secondary Education Officer Rezaul Karim said a team from Dhaka had already investigated the irregularities. "The issue of embezzlement is being taken seriously. Legal action will be taken against him," he said.

"The principal admitted that the password was under his responsibility, although he claimed he was unaware of the office assistant's actions. Since the process is online, Kamal took advantage of it," the officer added.

How the fraud worked

Investigators found major discrepancies between actual and reported student numbers. For example, in the Alim (class XI) section, 73 students were enrolled, of whom 41 regularly received stipends. But the government website listed 133 students, with stipends issued to 95 of them — meaning 54 extra students were shown.

At Tk10,000 per student annually, Kamal pocketed Tk5.4 lakh a year from this class alone, or about Tk21.6 lakh over four years. Similarly, he inflated the number of students in classes six to eight by over 150, embezzling around Tk18 lakh in four years, and in classes nine and ten by more than 100, taking Tk20 lakh more.

In total, Kamal is believed to have stolen Tk50–55 lakh in stipends meant for around 300 fake students from class six up to Fazil level.

Repeated calls to Kamal's phone went unanswered, and he did not respond to WhatsApp messages either. 

Madrasa Principal Maulana Al-Amin said: "A team from Dhaka conducted an audit and found numerous irregularities in stipend records, all linked to office assistant Kamal Uddin. He was given the task because of his IT skills, while I only approved OTPs sent to my mobile. I had no idea the process could be misused this way."

He added that Kamal has been suspended for two months and may lose his job permanently. "I have assured higher authorities that we will remain vigilant to prevent such irregularities in future," the principal said.

Cover-up attempts

In August, after hearing that an inspection team from Dhaka would visit institutions in Borhanuddin, Kamal panicked. Using his home computer and login credentials, he deleted over 100 student names from the central database. But since deleted entries could not be restored, stipends for many real students were also stopped, causing outrage among parents and students.

Although the team did not inspect the madrasa at that time, they later noticed a sudden drop in the number of stipend recipients from the institution while reviewing the central database. This prompted them to schedule a visit, during which they uncovered the full extent of the fraud.

The investigation team concluded that over the past five years, stipend money was withdrawn in the names of 250–300 fake students, totalling nearly Tk50 lakh.

Residents and former colleagues alleged that Kamal had been involved in financial irregularities before, including during his earlier jobs at a village court and an insurance company.