The High Court (HC) on Monday directed the concerned authority to dispose of an appeal filed by a Barguna man, for swindling money meant for TR (Test Relief) to Kajer Binimoy Khaddo (Food for Work) against local lawmaker Md Showkat Hasanur Rahman Rimon, within 30 days.
The HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat gave the directive after hearing a petition filed by Sultan Ahmed, said his lawyer Md Kamal Hossain.
Assistant Attorney Anna Khanam Koly represented the state during the hearing.
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The HC also issued a rule asking why it should not be illegal to take action against the ACC and others for their inactivity to move against the local lawmaker, district’s relief and rehabilitation officer, relief and rehabilitation officers of Patharghata, Betagi and Bamna upazilas.
ACC chairman, ACC commissioner (investigation), deputy commissioner, superintendent of police, Barguna-2 lawmaker Showkat, the district’s relief and rehabilitation officer and relief and rehabilitation officers of Patharghata, Betagi and Bamna were made respondents to the rule.
However, it set no timeframe to reply to the rule.
On May 9 last year, a report on ‘allegations on swindling crores from TR project without works’ was published in a newspaper.
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The report said money was realised without completing works of some TR projects in Patharghata and Betagi upazilas and money was also swindled without works of some projects in the upazilas respectively.
However, no irregularities were found in the Bamna upazila TR project.
An amount of Tk 2,2,91,805 was allotted for 323 projects under the TR projects in the three upazilas for the fiscal year 2021.
Following the newspaper report, the local Sultan lodged a complaint to the ACC chairman saying that the local lawmaker swindled money without carrying out development of infrastructures.
A legal notice was also served to the ACC chairman on November 7 asking why the complaint was not dismissed.