Money laundering: 3 Faridpur AL leaders on 2-day remand

A Dhaka court today placed three Awami League leaders of Faridpur town unit on two-day remand each in a Tk 2,000 crore money laundering case.

The accused are -- Nazmul Islam Khandakar (61), president of Faridpur town unit of AL, Billal Hossain (54), former treasurer of Faridpur Sramik League, and Arifur Rahman (40), general secretary of Faridpur town unit Jubo League.

They were arrested from different places in Faridpur town on July 31 and August 2.

All three accused were arrested on the basis of confessional statements of two accused -- Sajjad Hossain alias Barkat, former general secretary of the AL unit, and his brother Imtiaz Hasan alias Rubel, former president of Faridpur Press Club -- who were arrested earlier.

Metropolitan Magistrate Abu Sayeed passed the order after Uttam Kumar Biswas, assistant superintendent of police of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and also the investigation officer of the case, produced them before the court with a 10-day remand prayer.

Earlier in the day, three accused were shown arrested in the case as the IO submitted a petition in this regard on August 5.

In the remand prayer, the IO said all the three accused were directly involved with laundering money and they need to be remanded to find whereabouts of the others responsible for committing such offences, the IO added.

On the other hand, defence submitted a petition seeking bail along with cancellation of the remand prayer on grounds that their clients were not linked to the incident.

After hearing both sides, the magistrate turned down their bail petition and issued the remand order.

On July 24, Sajjad Hossain and Imtiaz Hasan gave confessional statements before a magistrate narrating their involvement in laundering money.

SM Miraj Al Mahmud, a CID inspector, lodged the case against the two brothers under the money laundering act with Kafrul Police Station on June 26.