ACC to sue ‘millionaire’ cop

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has approved filling of a case against suspended police inspector Sheikh Sohel Rana of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) for amassing illegal wealth worth Tk 28.49 crore.

The anti-graft body took the decision at a meeting held at the commission’s headquarters in the capital’s Segunbagicha on Monday, said ACC spokesperson M Arif Sadiq.

Earlier, the ACC Deputy Director Monayem Hossain submitted a probe report to the commission after carried out an inquiry against the cop over allegation of embezzling and laundering money.

According to ACC findings, the suspended DMP’s Banani police inspector (investigation) Sheikh Sohel Rana took Tk 28,49,37650.40 from the customers in the name of e-commerce business platform ‘E-orange’  alluring them of huge profit. 

The money was deposited at 31 accounts of six banks from where Sohel Rana withdrew Tk 28,46,72,913.80 from the banks.

The ACC’s Deputy Director Monayem Hossain recommended for filing of a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, Anti-Corruption Commission and Prevention of Corruption Act.

It was also learnt that Sohel Rana ran three business establishments and a number of dealerships of multinational companies.

He also owned four flats, a Tk 9 crore commercial building, a number of plots, and membership to elite clubs, assets in four different countries and hundreds of crores of taka in assets.

Apart from e-orange, Sheikh Sohel Rana also runs a business called T&G, with a branch at DCC Market in Gulshan and another at Garib-e-Newaz Avenue in Uttara.

For his real estate ambitions, he also bought a plot in Sector-3 in Purbachal, two plots in E and I blocks of a residential area adjacent to Kuril Bishwa Road, and land for a resort in Khagrachari.

On September 3, 2021, Sohel Rana was detained by members of the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) from the Changrabandha border in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district on charges of trespassing.

According to Indian media reports, the inspector was planning to go to Kathmandu in Nepal.

After his detention, officials of Bangladesh Police said Sohel Rana will be brought back to the country from India through the extradition treaty with India.