Ex-DIG Prisons Bazlur jailed for 5 years

A Dhaka Court on Sunday sentenced suspended Deputy Inspector General of Prisons Bazlur Rashid to five years imprisonment for amassing illegal wealth worth Tk 3.14 crore.

Judge Md Iqbal Hossain of the Dhaka Special Judge’s Court-5 handed down the verdict in presence of the convict at a jam-packed courtroom. The court also fined him Tk 5 lakh and in default to suffer six months more in prison.

After delivering the verdict, the court sent him to jail, cancelling his bail in the corruption case. It also ordered to confiscating of his illegal assets.

On September 22, both the prosecution and the defence completed their arguments and the court fixed the date for delivering the verdict in the case.

A total of 14 prosecution witnesses, including the complainant of the case, have testified before the court during the trial proceedings since the start of the trial on October 22, 2020, in the case.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on August 26, 2020, submitted a charge sheet to the Senior Special Judge’s Court of Dhaka accusing him.

The ACC arrested Bazlur Rashid in the case filed with ACC’s Integrated District Office-1 of Dhaka and showed him arrested in the case on October 20, 2019.

According to the case, Bazlur signed a contract with a real estate company in 2018 to buy a flat in the capital’s Siddheshwari Road area at Tk 3.09 crore.

The accused paid Tk 3.08 crore in cash and cheque between April 20, 2018, and June 7, 2018, but during ACC interrogation at the commission headquarters, he could not show any legal source of the money.

Bazlur started working as Jail Super in 1993. He was promoted to DIG Prisons in 2013. He was suspended by the home ministry from service after his arrest in the graft case.