ACC cleared to grill 4 NSU trustees at jail gate

A Dhaka court has allowed the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to interrogate four members of North South University’s (NSU) Board of Trustees at the jail gate for a day, in a case filed over the embezzlement of Tk 304 crore.

Metropolitan Senior Special Judge KM Emrul Kayesh on Monday passed the order after ACC Deputy Director and case investigation officer Farid Ahmed Patwary produced the four NSU trustees before the court and submitted the interrogate plea.

The four accused are MA Kashem, Benajir Ahmed, Rehana Rahman and Mohammed Shajahan.

Farid in the petition said that the four should be interrogated for more information since they were directly involved with the embezzlement and money laundering.

After the hearing, the court sent them to prison and asked ACC to interrogate them at the jail gate for one day. It also directed the prison authorities to provide them division in jail as per the Jail Code following pleas from defence lawyers.

On Sunday, the four NSU trustees were shown arrested after the High Court rejected their anticipatory bail petitions in the case filed by the ACC.

The anti-graft watchdog on May 5 started the case against these four, Azim Uddin Ahmed, chairman of the Board of Trustees, and Amin Mohammad Hilali, managing director of Ashaloy Housing and Developers Limited, and charged them with embezzlement of Tk 304 crore the university’s fund and money laundering.

According to the case statement, the trustees approved a hefty amount for the NSU permanent campus by overstating the land price. Subsequently, the land developer deposited the extra money into the bank accounts of the accused, leading to embezzlement.

It said the university paid the developer Tk 500 crore for 8,250 decimals of land in 2016 and Tk 35.19 crore for another 846.88 decimals of land between 2019 and 2021. The ACC investigation found out that the trustees had the NSU pay about Tk 303.82 crore extra to the company.

The accused have unjustly benefited themselves by embezzling funds and have committed punishable offences by exchanging commissions or bribes, states the case. Money laundering also took place through the transfer and conversion of the embezzled amount, according to the ACC.

The anti-graft watchdog said it will also initiate separate inquiries to verify several allegations against NSU, such as overcharging students, embezzlement of university funds in the name of fixed-deposit receipts, bribes for recruitment, car purchases by evading duties and availing numerous facilities unethically by the university top management.