A Dhaka court on Sunday placed former lawmaker and Lt Gen (retd) Masud Uddin Chowdhury on a four-day remand in a case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on charge of embezzling Tk 119.32 crore through the recruitment of workers for Malaysia.
Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Md Sabbir Faiz issued the order after hearing a remand petition filed by the ACC.
The investigating officer, ACC Assistant Director Md Abul Kalam Azad, had sought a seven-day remand, arguing that further custodial interrogation was essential to uncover the full extent of the alleged financial irregularities and money laundering activities.
During the hearing, ACC Public Prosecutor Mir Ahmed Ali Salam urged the court to grant the remand, stating that the accused played a significant role in the alleged corruption scheme and that further questioning was necessary for the ongoing investigation. Defence lawyers opposed the petition, arguing for the cancellation of the remand request, but the court ultimately granted four days instead of the seven sought by investigators.
According to the ACC, Masud Uddin Chowdhury and several others, acting in collusion, allegedly abused their authority to obtain appointment as recruitment agents for sending Bangladeshi workers to Malaysia. Although the government had fixed the official recruitment cost at Tk 78,990 per worker, the accused allegedly collected substantial additional fees from migrant workers through various unlawful means.
The anti-graft agency alleges that the accused illegally collected approximately Tk 1.1932 billion (Tk 119.32 crore) from prospective migrant workers, causing significant financial losses to them. Investigators further claim that the illegally obtained money was concealed, transferred, converted and laundered through different financial transactions in violation of the Money Laundering Prevention Act, the Penal Code and the Anti-Corruption Commission Act.
In its remand application, the ACC told the court that custodial interrogation of Masud Uddin Chowdhury was necessary to identify other individuals involved in the alleged syndicate, trace the flow of the illicit funds, recover documentary evidence and verify information related to the money laundering allegations.
Earlier, on March 25, the investigation officer filed an application before the court seeking to show Masud Uddin Chowdhury arrested in the corruption case.
He was first arrested late on the night of March 23 from his residence in Baridhara DOHS in Dhaka. The following day, a court granted a five-day remand in connection with a case filed with Paltan Model Police Station. Since then, he has been shown arrested in multiple other cases and remanded for questioning in connection with separate investigations.
The investigation into the alleged corruption and money laundering linked to the Malaysia labour recruitment process remains ongoing.
