How could the arrest of Sehela Parvin, wife of Md Ali Akbar Khan, former chairman of Bangladesh Technical Education Board (BTEB), be explained for her alleged involvement in certificate-business? There are allegations that she earned a large sum of money in exchange of forged certificates.
Despite not being anyone of the BTEB, how could she be involved in such a business of forged certificates? There should be an investigation on whether she did this on her own, seizing the opportunity of her husband’s post, or her husband instigated her to do that.
A Prothom Alo report said Sanjida Akter alias Koly, director of Kushtia’s Gorai Polytechnical Institute sent her Tk 300,000 that was carried to her by BTEB’s system analyst engineer AKM Shamsuzzaman, who has been arrested on charges of printing forged certificates and selling those.
A primary investigation has found evidence of transactions of money between Sehela Parvin and Shamsuzzaman, said the police’s intelligence agency. The law enforcement agency has also arrested former employee at BTEB Foysal Hossain, who currently works as a computerman at Shamsuzzaman’s facility to produce forged certificates, Gorai Polytechnical Institute director Sanjida Akter alias Koly, principal of a technical institution Hilful Fuzul, Sardar Golam Mostafa and director of Polytechnical School and College in Dhaka’s Jatrabari, Maksudur Rahman.
The question is what’s the role of the former chairman of BTEB in this scandal of forged certificate-business? It is not credible that he had no knowledge of the whole affair. Following his arrest, Md Ali Akbar Khan was removed from the post of BTEB chairman and attached with the Directorate of Technical Education.
It seems that the authorities have completed their responsibilities by awarding light punishment to the person in the form of removing him from his post when the certificate-business was run when he was in charge. The intelligence agency said that the wife of the BTEB chairman was placed on remand based on evidence. There is no scope to pass the bribed money as a loaned one.
In no way such a scandal is acceptable at an education board that determines the fate of hundreds of thousands of students. Everyone involved in giving, taking and facilitating the bribery must be brought to book.
In his confessional statement, BTEB’s arrested system analyst engineer AKM Shamsuzzaman alleged that two officials of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and eight journalists of different media outlets also took bribes. This proves that the clique has a long reach.
The ACC has submitted a charge sheet against Mohammad Mostafizur Rahman, another former chairman of the Bangladesh Technical Education Board, in a case filed on charges of amassing assets of Tk 16.2 million from beyond the known sources of his income. Now the allegation of forging certificates has been brought against the immediate past chairman. The officials of this organisation have been making records for their inefficiency and dishonesty.
If the authorities want to stop this crime, people directly and indirectly involved with forging of certificates must be brought to book so that none could take an interest in such an illicit activity.
Let legal actions be taken immediately against the people involved with the crime upon completing the investigation of BTEB.