Of the amount, Tk 50 lakh was paid to the political office of former prime minister Khaleda Zia and Tk 20 lakh to former minister for environment and forests Tariqul Islam.

Another Tk 10 lakh was given to Amitabh Siraj Apu, son of former textiles minister Shajahan Shiraj, and also personal assistant to Tarique Rahman, to set meetings for Gani with the forest minister and Hawa Bhaban representatives.

Gani made this confessional statement during interrogation by the taskforce.

Sources concerned said Gani used to blackmail forest officials, against whom divisional cases in connection with plundering of around Tk 3,000 crore were pending, to earn illegal money.

He used to threaten them to start the proceedings of the cases if the officials would not pay the monthly bribes, the sources added.

A Dhaka court yesterday again placed the recently dismissed Gani on a five-day remand.

Police produced Gani before Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in the afternoon with a prayer for a seven-day remand.

Earlier, the investigation officer (IO) of the case informed the court that Gani gave contradictory information regarding corruption and his wealth. So he needs to be quizzed further, the IO added.

Meanwhile, Members of the Anti-Corruption Commission and the joint forces raided the residence of Gani's wife Mohsina on Maneswar Road in the capital for half an hour and seized some documents.

Sources said they went to the house to arrest some suspected relatives of the former forest boss but could not find anyone.

The environment and forests ministry has already initiated a probe to identify the members of Gani's syndicate.

"We have launched an investigation against Gani to find out his syndicate members. We have already collected a few evidences," AHM Rezaul Karim, acting secretary to the ministry of environment and forests, said.