A Dhaka court yesterday granted permission to the Anti-Corruption Commission to open lockers of over 300 incumbent and former officials of Bangladesh Bank.
“The lockers will be opened in the presence of a judicial magistrate. If there are undisclosed assets in those lockers, legal action will be taken against them,” ACC Public Prosecutor Mahmud Hossain Jahangir told The Daily Star.
Judge Md Zakir Hossain of Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge’s Court passed the order after ACC Director Kazi Saemuzzaman, who is leading the inquiry team, submitted an application in this regard.
Jahangir moved the application on behalf of the anti-graft body.
In the application, the ACC official said on January 26 they opened a locker of former deputy governor SK Sur Chowdhury kept at the central bank and found €55,000, $169,300, 1 kg of gold, and Tk 70 lakh in Fixed Deposit Receipt (FDR) in the sealed box.
It was also discovered that other Bangladesh Bank officials have sealed safe deposit boxes in the vault, raising suspicions that these may contain undisclosed assets as well.
The ACC is currently investigating multiple allegations, including money laundering, against various central bank officials.
Earlier in the day, the ACC requested BB Governor Ahsan H Mansur to temporarily freeze all the lockers inside the security vaults belonging to the central bank officials, Saemuzzaman said.
He said BB officials are permitted to maintain personal lockers at the central bank for keeping their valuables.