On the third day of its investigation into graft charges against the mayor, the taskforce found that he has huge landed properties in different areas and also deposited huge amount of money in several banks, which did not match his legal source of income.

The ACC and bank sources said Mayor Sarwar deposited huge amount of money in Dhaka and Barisal branches of Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited and National Bank Limited and conducted transactions amounting to crores of taka.

He has a fixed deposit of Tk 50 lakh in the name of one of his daughters and a cash deposit of Tk 50 lakh in regular account in Barisal branch of DBBL, they added. He has also two fixed deposits of Tk 30 lakh each in the name of his two daughters and Tk 50,000 in regular account in NBL Barisal branch.

The taskforce chief Major Abdul Hye and members Fazlul Huq, deputy director of Barisal ACC, Maniruzzaman, deputy director of Taxes, Hayatul Islam, assistant commissioner of Barisal Metropolitan Police, and Zainul Abedin, ASP of Rab, visited Sadar Upazila sub-registry office yesterday and inquired about landed properties owned by the Mayor and his family members.

They asked Sub-registrar Sirajul Islam to submit detailed reports about the properties within 24 hours.

Sources said the mayor has valuable landed properties worth cores of taka in Chandamari, Textile, Kashipur and Puranpara areas of the city.

Meanwhile, panic gripped the ward commissioners, officials, staffs and employees of the Barisal City Corporation as the taskforce also asked for information about their wealth and properties and inquired about various irregularities in the corporation activities.

Some officials even did not turn up in their offices.

Sources said the taskforce might lodge a case against the mayor on charges of corruption and irregularities in city corporation activities within a short time.