ACC to prosecute former Gazipur mayor Jahangir over ‘Tk 75bn embezzlement’

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is set to initiate legal proceedings against former Gazipur mayor Md Jahangir Alam on charges of embezzling and laundering around Tk 75 billion from the city's development and revenue funds.

The graftbusters approved the case for filing on Sunday, according to ACC Deputy Director Md Akhtarul Islam.

Golam Kibria, former chief accounts officer of Gazipur City Corporation, is also implicated in the case.

The ACC alleges that the defendants colluded to prepare fake tenders and bills, awarding contracts to a contractor firm they controlled, and thereby misappropriated over Tk 75 billion.

The graft probe against Jahangir was launched in June 2022, seven months after he was removed from his post as mayor.

At the time, it was alleged that he embezzled tens of millions of taka through irregularities in various development projects, opened fake bank accounts under the name of the city corporation, and withdrew funds from them.

The case states that, between Feb 25, 2020, and Dec 22, 2021, Jahangir deposited and withdrew funds into and from the fake accounts, which he then misappropriated.

Jahangir was elected mayor in the 2018 Gazipur City Corporation election as an Awami League candidate.

However, in November 2021, he was expelled from the party following controversial remarks about Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the martyrs of the Liberation War. He was later removed from the mayoral post by the local government ministry.