Photo : Messenger
At least 17 unregistered vehicles with fake clearances have been included in the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority's (BRTA) Manikganj circle. Three officials from the BRTA have been alleged to be involved in this fraud.
The Anti-Corruption Commission's (ACC) Deputy Director, Abdus Salam Ali Mollah, filed a supplementary charge sheet against five individuals in court after conducting further investigation.
In the charge sheet, the following individuals have been accused in the matter, Abdul Hannan (suspended Manikganj Circle Assistant Director, Engineer), Enayet Hossain Montu (Dhaka Metro Circle 2 Assistant Director, Engineer), Joynal Abedin Chowdhury (currently Assistant Director of Lakshmipur, Dhaka Metro Circle 2 Motor Vehicle Inspector), Jewel Ahmed (Savar, Dhaka), Yakub Bhuiyan (Senbag Upazila of Noakhali).
According to the ACC, Abdul Hannan signed the OD registrar to include vehicles using fake clearance certificates. He also carried out other activities, including manually including vehicles in the Manikganj circle and changing ownership records. While performing his duties as a motor vehicle inspector, he inspected the chassis and engine numbers of the vehicles and signed clearance certificates claiming the vehicles were free from mechanical defects. In the Manikganj Circle, he legitimized stolen vehicles by including them based on fake clearances, falsely registering them in the Dhaka Metro (South) Circle. Enayet Hossain Montu and Zainal Abedin Chowdhury assisted him in this process.
It has been discovered that only two owners of the vehicles, Jewel Ahmed and Yakub Bhuiyan, were found to be legitimate. Despite knowing that these vehicles were not registered, sources within the BRTA cleared them in the Manikganj Circle using fake licenses.
According to the findings of the Criminal Investigation Department's (CID) handwriting experts, Abdul Hannan included the vehicles in the Manikganj circle with his signature, while Enayet Hossain Montu signed one and Zainal Abedin signed three fake vehicle clearances.
The ACC chargesheet indicates that between January 18, 2009, and April 3, 2011, Abdul Hannan included 16 vehicles in Dhaka Metro Circle-2 of the BRTA by showing false registrations and one vehicle from Sirajganj Circle to Manikganj Circle using a transfer permit. In reality, none of the 17 vehicles in Dhaka Metro-2 and Sirajganj Circle were registered.
Notably, information about the inclusion of vehicles in the BRTA Manikganj circle in the BRTA-IS system is not available. These vehicles were included in the OD volume in Manikganj Circle, and it's known that separate files are manually opened for each vehicle, although this practice has now been revealed as fraudulent.
Messenger/Nazrul/Fardin
