Bangladesh
Documents Tampering Why dispute the Prime Minister's Office, High Court asks
Dhaka, June 9: The High Court has asked why Fatema Khatun, a sacked employee, should not be granted bail in a case of forgery of documents of the Prime Minister's Office over the appointment of treasurer of a private university. A virtual High Court bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Sardar Md Rashed Jahangir asked the question on Tuesday (June 8). Lawyer Momtajuddin Ahmed Mehedi was in favor of the application in the court.
At the bail hearing, the High Court said, "Why dispute the Prime Minister's Office? Why do you question this important office of the state? Such a crime may seem small to you, but you don't have to look at it from a flexible point of view."
The lawyer said the applicant has been in jail since May 10 last year. She is sick. The court said there was nothing to do. The court then issued a rule on the bail question of the accused.
According to the details of the case, Prof. Dr. M Enamul Haque, Chairman, Department of History, Prof. Md. Abdur Rauf, Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, BUET, and retired Air Commodore, M Abdus Salam Azad, former Treasurer, Bangladesh University of Professionals, had been nominated for the post of Treasurer of North-South University. The documents were sent from the ministry to the PM's office. When the document was presented to the Prime Minister, she ticked the name of Prof. Dr. M Enamul Haque.
Later, in preparation for sending the document to the President for final approval, the document went to Fatima, an office assistant in the Prime Minister's Office, who told BCL leader Tariqul over the phone that M Abdus Salam Azad had not been approved as treasurer.
Then, according to Tariqul's plan, Fatema took the document out of the Prime Minister's Office and handed it over to a man named Farhad. In that document, Tariqul tampered with the tick mark given by the Prime Minister next to the name of Dr M Enamul Haque and gave a cross mark there. Similarly, he ticked the name of Air Commodore M Abdus Salam Azad with a cross mark next to the name of Professor Md. Abdur Rauf. The document was later sent to the President's Office.
Before handing over the documents, Fatema took Tk 10,000 through bKash and after the transfer, she took Tk 10,000 through her son's bKash account in another phase, the case said.
Director-7 of the Prime Minister's Office Mohammad Rafiqul Alam filed the case on May 5 last year. The chargesheet has been submitted to the court accusing 6 people including the BCL leader in this case.
