Staff Correspondent

The Ministry of Housing and Public Works has not taken any departmental action yet against former chief engineer of Public Works Department (PWD) and presently Director General ( DG) of Housing and Building Research Institute ( HBRI) Md Ashraful Alam though the Anti-Corruption Commission ( ACC) has filed case against him and his wife Sabina Alam on Wednesday (June 21) for massive corruption and accumulation of huge lllegal wealths.

ACC Assistant Director Mohammad Nur Alam Siddiqui filed the case as the plaintiff Ashraful Alam have been accused of acquiring wealths beyond known income.

According to the case statement filed by Assistant Director of ACC Mohammad Nur Alam Siddiqui Ashraful Alam has illegal assets worth Tk.27. 92 lakh and 63 taka.

By secretly giving false and baseless information and acquiring assets worth Tk 23 lakh 79 thousand 246 beyond known income, committed an offense punishable under Section 5 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 including Sections 26 (2) and 27 (1) of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act, 2004.

It is also said in the case statement, during the investigation of the complaint, it can be seen from the review of the relevant records and the asset statement submitted by the accused in the Anti-Corruption Commission, that the accused Md. Ashraful Alam declared assets worth Tk 55 lakh 8 thousand 672 including immovable Tk 12 lakh 53 thousand 359 and movable Tk 42 lakh 55 thousand 313 in his own name in the asset declaration submitted to ACC.

Besides, during verification of asset statement, property worth Tk 83 lakh and 735 were found in his name including immovable 34 lakh 54 thousand 79 taka and immovable Tk 48 lakh 46 thousand 656 . In this case, he has committed an offense punishable under Section 26 (2) of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act, 2004 by concealing acquired assets worth Tk 27 lakh 92 thousand 60 in the submitted asset statement by submitting false and baseless statements.

On the other hand, a separate case was filed against engineer Ashraful Alam and his wife Sabina Alam for allegedly acquiring illegal wealth of Tk 3 crore 76 lakh and 24, 335.

It is stated in the statement that the accused Sabina Alam and her husband Ashraful Alam have given false and baseless information by concealing assets worth Tk 66 lakh 26 thousand 465 in the asset declaration submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Accused Ashraful Alam is a government official working as an engineer in Public Works Department. By abusing power and acquiring known non-income assets worth Tk 3 crore 76 lakh 24 thousand 335 through illegal money earned through various corrupt activities Anti-Corruption Commission Act, 2004 Sections 26 (2), 27 (1) and Section 109 of the Penal Code, 1947 has committed an offense punishable under Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Despite filing the case by the ACC against controversial former chief engineer of PWD and now the DG of HBRI Ashraful Alam last week, he is still holding the position as no deparmental action has been taken yet against him reasons best known to the authority.

The State Minister of Housing and Public Works Md Sharif Ahmed and Secretary of the same Ministry Kazi Wasi Uddin could not be reached as they did not receive the call though messages seeking comments in this regard were sent to their WhatsApp numbers.