Education ministry suspends two staffers charged with Lakehead bribery

The Ministry of Education has suspended its two staffers accused of bribery over reopening the controversial Lakehead Grammar School, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid has said.

The move came on Tuesday, a day after the Detective Branch filed a case against the two staffers and the owner of Lakehead Grammar School.

The three stand accused of bribing authorities for reopening the English-medium school in Dhaka which the education ministry closed down last year following allegations of harbouring militancy.

The ministry staffers at the heart of the controversy are the education minister’s aide Motaleb Hossain and Nasir Uddin, a so-called upper-division assistant.

The ministry has ordered the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education to execute the decision against Nasir who was working on deputation.

Nasir is also the secretary general of the Secondary and Higher Secondary Government Staff and Officials' Welfare Forum. 

“The suspension order will remain in force until the completion of the trial,” Nahid told reporters at the secretariat on Tuesday.

Law enforcers arrested Motaleb in Mohammadpur’s Basila on Sunday, while Nasir was detained in Gulshan around the same time.

They reportedly went missing after being led away by “unidentified people” in Dhaka between Jan 18 and Jan 20.

Detective Branch Joint Commissioner Abdul Baten said Motaleb and Nasir were detained on charges of corruption. The police found Tk 130,000 in cash on Nasir.