Former coast guard DG Shafiq-ur-Rahman arrested on graft charges

Former director general of Bangladesh Coast Guard and BNP leader Shafiq-ur-Rahman has been arrested on corruption charges.

The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) says he is accused in a case stated at Dhaka's Cantonment Police Station on Aug 2,1998.
 
"He was arrested at his home at Mohakhali DOHS last night. Details will be provided later," ACC Deputy Director Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya told bdnews24.com on Thursday.
 
Ramna Police Station's Inspector Md Ali Hossain said the former naval officer was taken there around 1am.
 
A Dhaka court later in the day sent Rahman to jail after rejecting his bail plea.
 
His lawyer Prabir Ranjan Das said, “My client is not corrupt. We will prove his innocence.”
 
ACC spokesperson Pranab said the erstwhile Anti Corruption Bureau had filed the corruption case accusing Rahman and four others of amassing nearly Tk 75 million between 1996 and 1998 by illegally selling wheat allotted to the coast guards by the disaster management and relief ministry.
 
Shafiq-ur-Rahman, also a former member of BNP's National Executive Committee, served as the coast guards chief from February 1995 to August 1998.
 
Shafiq, a retired navy commodore, is also a director of the Ashiyan Group. He is also the executive director of private security company, Sentry Security Services Ltd.