The Anti-Corruption Commission of Bangladesh (ACC) on Wednesday filed two separate cases against former chairman of Bangladesh Samabay Bank Limited Mohiuddin Ahmed and his wife Nurjahan Begum for accumulating wealth beyond their known source of income and concealing information about their assets. ACC Deputy Director Jahangir Alam filed the case with the ACC's Dhaka Integrated District Office, ACC deputy director ( spokesperson), said  the cases were filed under sections 26(2) and 27(1) of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act, 2004. BFIU orders to freeze accounts of Union Bank MD Mokammel According to the case statement, Mohiuddin did not disclose information of assets worth TK 1 lakh while the ACC found the evidence of TK 2.7 crore assets beyond his known sources of income. On the other hand, according to the case statement that Mohiuddin's wife, Nurjahan Begum, declared assets worth Tk 1.33 crore to the ACC while investigation found that she concealed information about of wealth worth TK 14.7 lakh  and she acquired assets worth Tk 1.19 crore beyond her known income sources. Earlier, on February 16, 2021, Mohiuddin, along with eight others, was accused of embezzling Tk 11 crore worth of gold deposited by customers of Bangladesh Samabaya Bank Limited. However, he was later excluded from the charge sheet.

In some ways, Mohiuddin Ahmed - bhai to me and Emeritus publisher and CEO of UPL to the world- was the odd man out in our publishing world. UPL to that extent still is as an outfit committed to quality. For those of us who knew him personally, he was the great raconteur, the teller of tales carried by him for many years and publisher of excellence. For some reason we had a wonderful rapport and he never really was the “publisher” to me, always the senior friend, always the one who shared his stories with me and his love of books. A year ago, he passed away on this day. This is a very personal memoriam for me. So I will not discuss his achievements because they are so well known. He adorned our publishing world with a sense of class and grace that few did before and after. Beginning as a staff of Oxford University Press (OUP), he became the owner of the UPL brand, indigenizing the brand that now no longer needs to borrow from the earlier incarnation. If OUP were to come to Bangladesh today, UPL would be its toughest competitor and probably win. The work goes on, the legacy lives on robustly. Also read: Mohiuddin Ahmed: The diplomat in history The publisher and the writer   I am sharing three encounters that I feel images him so well. My first book- a Bangla novel- was published by UPL, a big act for a new writer. It was okayed by Akhtaruzzaman Iiyas bhai who was the official reader deciding what qualifies and what doesn’t. I remember this meeting at the UPL office where we finalized ieverything.Iliyas bhai was griping a bit about his time spent on duties as a “public intellectual and writer”.  Hearing this Mohiuddin bhai, scolded him. “ You are  a writer and you should just write , not waste your time doing anything else. There are many others who can do it. “ Iliyas bhai smiled and nodded his head though I think his “activism’  did eat into his time. And then cancer ended what was left. Mohiuddin bhai knew very well what the task of a writer was, writing came first. I think the words came from both his heart and head.  And this belief made him who he became.  The Bergman case   Mohiuddin bhai’s health had declined when I met him in 2012 after my return from Canada. He was increasingly dependent on his daughter Mahrukh but we chatted and talked about books again. Yet despite his ill health he signed the petition protesting the contempt charge against David Bergman in 2014-5. He was there even in his wheelchair attending the court. He was the publisher of “Unfinished Memoirs “ of Bangabandhu  but to him, it was a great book and not an act of politics.  He became, without public activism, a publisher with a conscience and conviction. Shakespeare and the ride home   It was at one of the last few social events that I attended at his place. His OUP friend from London was visiting and at the Badda office there was a small gathering. At some point Shakespeare came up and then Mohiuddin bhai was reciting long passages from memory in his wonderful baritone.  Hamlet and Lear I remember but maybe others too. I could sense his love of words, as he spoke, the voice becoming the words that make a book. The last time we met was in 2019. He was dropping me home and we again discussed books. He had thought of writing an autobiography but he felt he knew stuff which couldn’t share.  Maybe he thought, a half deleted recall is not worth it. Soon Covid came and ravaged many including him. He recovered but his health finally failed the lion heart with glasses on, always browsing through a wonderful book. Maybe he had published that. Remembering you ever more everyday Mohiuddin bhai. 

The officials of  the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) paid their last respect to former secretary, diplomat Mohiuddin Ahmed, also an organiser of the Liberation War. Mohiuddin Ahmed’s s body was brought to his former workplace, the Foreign Service Academy, Tuesday morning where his Namaz-e-Janaza was held. Also read: PM expresses condolences at Mohiuddin's passing PM’s energy adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury , State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam and Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen, among others, attended the janaza. Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen could not attend the janaza as he is visiting flood-hit Sylhet with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said a press release. The body of late Mohiuddin Ahmed was then taken to his village home in Feni for burial.

"There is a difference between deciding to join and joining when it's safe. I joined the 1971 cause because I believed in it," Mohiuddin Ahmed said. We were at a TV show on ETV a few years back when he said the above. The discussion was on the 1971 war and the participation of Mohiuddin Ahmed which produced Bangladesh.  He spoke with candour and yet humbly but the eyes were touched by the fire that lit bright that year in many other eyes. A 27-years-old diplomat posted in London, a prize for anyone, not just one from East Pakistan he had started to make it. But then the country called. And soon he was part of a bigger event than he would ever be. And he was on the winning side. The news of Mohiddin Ahmed's death is particularly poignant for me because I am finalising our book on the international dimensions of 1971 and his name comes up so many times. He comes alive even more alive because I knew the persons on the pages of history personally.  London became the bastion of resistance at the international level, as the UK, already home to an active anti-Pakistan resistance movement, became the showcase of ordinary Bangladeshis mobilising global public opinion successfully. Also Read: Ex-secretary Mohiuddin Ahmed no more Justice Abu Sayeed Chowdhury, then the VC of Dhaka University was on a visit to London when the army cracked down March 25. It was the very campus that had to make Pakistan become the symbol of national resistance.  Students, staff and teachers were killed and became the great horror story of our time. Justice Chowdhury refused to return home and made London his HQ to fight for Bangladesh. In that fight, Mohiuddin Ahmed played a major role. I had asked him what made him take the plunge on August 1, 1971 when he expressed his allegiance to the Mujibnagar government. He had wanted to resign on April 10 having met Justice Chowdhury who had asked him to wait for a green signal from the PM.  He was always in touch and served Bangladesh secretly till he formally left Pakistan. In response to my question, he had a simple answer, "The power of history is often greater than the call of self-survival. It had to happen." The Bangladeshi mission began functioning in London around the end of August and became the hub of all activities in Europe. It was the embassy of a country which existed in occupation but proved strong enough to become a reality on December 16, 1971. We barely remember these people who gave their all in 1971 because our history is buried under the debris of politics. But facts remain, the past remains and so does the evidence of courage, sacrifice and resolve of persons like Mohiuddin Ahmed. Once on a telephone chat, he had asked about the 1971 history itself: "Who created it?"  I said: "Everyone." The overarching reality is the birth of Bangladesh and in that it's the faces of people like him who shall decorate the walls of history. Farewell Mohiuddin bhai. Your life was so much worth living for. Adieu.  

Mohiuddin Ahmed, the founder of University Press Limited (UPL), passed away in Dhaka early Tuesday. He was 77 The emeritus publisher breathed his last at 12:59am, said his daughter Mahrukh Mohiuddin in a facebook post. His namaz-e-janaza was held at Gulshan Azad mosque after Zuhr prayers. Mohiuddin Ahmed was born in 1944 in Parashuram upazila of Feni. After graduating from Dhaka University, Mohiuddin studied journalism at Punjab University with a Pakistan Council Scholarship. Later in 1975, he established publication institution UPL. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed profound shock at his death.