ACC prosecutes S Alam sons Asadul, Ashraful over ‘forged’ pay orders

A fomer deputy tax commissioner and seven officials of First Security Islami Bank have been implicated in the same case

The Anti-Corruption Commission has prosecuted the two sons of controversial business tycoon Saiful Alam over allegations of forged pay orders.

The case was lodged on Tuesday at the ACC’s Integrated District Office, Chattogram-1, implicating a former deputy tax commissioner and seven officials of First Security Islami Bank.

The accused are Asadul Alam and Ashraful Alam along with Aminul Islam, former deputy tax commissioner of Chattogram Tax Zone-1.

The complaint was filed by Nizam Uddin, an assistant director at the ACC headquarters, according to Subel Ahmed, deputy director of the agency’s Chattogram office.

Charges have been brought under Penal Code sections 109, 409, 467, 468, and 471.

According to the case statement, in 2021 Asadul declared income tax payment through a pay order dated Jun 29 and recorded a deposit and withdrawal of Tk 250 million on that day.

“But ACC investigations revealed that the bank account used for the pay order and statement was opened 5 months and 20 days later, on the 19th of December of the same year. No deposit slip for the supposed transaction was found either,” it read.

The statement further noted that although no transactions were recorded on Dec 20, a deposit slip dated that day was later discovered.

Similarly, Ashraful’s records showed a pay order issued on Jun 29, 2021, but the account had no funds at the time, and no deposit slip could be traced. Like his brother’s records, the statement mentioned a Tk 250 million deposit on Jun 29, but a deposit slip dated Dec 20 was instead recovered.

The case alleges that the accused, acting in collusion with bank officials, exploited information technology to falsify records and fraudulently backdate Dec 20 transactions to appear as if they had taken place on Jun 29.