A Dhaka court today framed charges against Abdul Malek, a driver of Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS), and his wife Nargis Begum in two separate graft cases.
Malek, now in jail, and Nargis, now on bail, pleaded not guilty and demanded justice after Judge Al Asad Md Asifuzzaman of the Special Judge Court-6 of Dhaka read out the charges to them.
Earlier in the day, the judge dismissed petitions submitted for discharging them from the charges of the cases.
The judge then fixed July 19 for starting of the cases.
On February 14 last year, the ACC filed two separate cases against the couple with its Dhaka Integrated District Office.
Syed Nazrul Islam, an assistant director of the Anti-Corruption Commission, and also the investigation officer of the cases, submitted two charge sheets to the Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge’s Court on October 27 of the same year.
According to the first case statement, Malek provided a false and baseless wealth statement to the anti-graft watchdog by hiding information of movable and immovable assets worth over Tk 93 lakh.
Besides, he possessed more than Tk 1.5 crore worth of movable and immovable wealth, which does not adjust to his known income sources.
According to the second case, driver Malek and his wife Nargis both were made accused for keeping wealth worth around Tk1.10 crore, which was acquired illegally, under the possession of Nargis upon mutual conciliation between them.
On information that Malek was staying in Kamarpara area under Turag Police Station in Dhaka, a team of Rab conducted a drive there on September 20 of 2020 and arrested him along with a foreign-made pistol, a magazine, five rounds of bullets, Tk 1.5 lakh in fake currency, a laptop and a mobile phone.
Malek possessed more than Tk 100 crore in wealth, Rab claimed.
Later, two cases — one for possessing arms and ammunition and the other for possessing fake currencies — were filed against him with Turag Police Station.
On September 20 last year, Malek was sentenced to 30 years’ rigorous imprisonment for possessing firearms and ammunition at his Turag residence in the capital.
