BNP bins money recovery report

It’s an effort to belittle opposition, say leaders

Arafat Rahman Koko 

BNP on Friday shrugged off the report on the recovery of Tk 13 crore purportedly laundered by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s younger son Arafat Rahman Koko, saying it is an effort by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to undermine the opposition.

“The current ACC has already established itself as an agent of the government. We think ACC is biased to the government and now working to belittle the opposition at its behest,” said BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

The BNP spokesman came up with his party’s reaction to the report on the recovery of the laundered money while visiting injured Shariatpur district unit leaders of BNP at a city hospital.

Earlier on Thursday, ACC Chairman Ghulam Rahman told reporters that the commission has brought back around Tk 13 crore laundered by Koko and his associate.

Reacting to the ACC chairman’s claim, Fakhrul said, “The incident of the recovery of money is nothing but part of efforts of the ACC to assassinate the characters of the opposition leaders …it’s politically motivated.”

Accusing the government of using the ACC to gain its narrow political interests, the BNP leader said the current regime cooked up the story through the ACC to defame Koko to divert people’s attention from their corruption and failures.

He alleged that the ACC is not taking any action against the ruling party men who laundered several thousand crores of taka after looting from the financial sector, including the share market, and through Destiny and Hall-Mark groups.

Fakhrul also alleged that the anti-graft body is giving clean chits to the ruling party men involved in corruption while filing false cases against Khaleda Zia, Tarique Rahman and Koko one after another.

Source: The Daily Star