New Age: The Anti-Corruption Commission will sue 47 officers and employees of the Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd’s revenue offices for their involvement in embezzlement of Tk 31.40 crore.

The ACC has approved the filing of eight cases against 47 people, said its director general Hanif Iqbal at a briefing on Thursday.

‘The accused misappropriated the huge amount by making fake bills and vouchers, and by spending money beyond the budgetary allocation, between 2000-2001 and 2007-2008,’ he said.

He also said that the ACC had identified 19 offices of the divisional engineers of Dhaka division, excepting greater Faridpur, where Tk 41.39 crore was misappropriated by also making fake bills and vouchers and by spending money beyond the budgetary allocation.

There are 55 offices of divisional engineers in Dhaka division, Hanif said.

The people to be sued are former revenue directors Noor Hossain Miah, Abul Kashem Miah, Kazi Abbasuddin, Gulshan Ara and Kazi Monjurul Karim, senior accounts officers Sheikh Ali Ahmed, Idris Ali, Moniruzzaman Chowdhury, ABM Fazlul Haque, Dewan M Akhtaruzzaman, Abdul Mannan Talukdar, Zahidur Rahman, Abdul Latif Hawlader, Shahjahan Miah, Masud Hasan and Ayub Reza Pahlabi, assistant directors Hemayet Uddin, Abdul Majid Miah, Syed Shakhawat Hossain Chowdhury, M Mohiuddin, Shawkat Ali Miah, Nurul Islam Chowdhury and ATM Khaliquzzaman, senior/junior accountants Ahmed Ali, M Mohiuddin, Mainul Islam, Rafiqul Islam, M Mohiuddin, Golam Mostafa, Iqbal Bahar, Ilyas Uddin Ahmed, Golam Kibria, Taslim Hossain, Mahmudul Alam, Najibur Rahman, Mujibur Rahman, Liakat Hossain Mollah, Shamsul Huda, Syed Abul Kalam, Mohadeb Chandra Basu, Tofazzal Hossain, Shahadat Hossain, Abdus Sattar and Sohrab Hossain, and cashier/upper division assistants (bill clerks) Saif Uddin Ahmed, Pradip Kumar Das and Azad Hossain.

Replying to a question, Hanif said that all the 47 individuals would be accused in each of the eight cases.

ACC sources said that the cases would be filed on Monday or Tuesday. Six cases will be filed in Dhaka and two will be filed in Chittagong and Khulna.

Hanif also said that the ACC on Thursday approved charges to be pressed against nine persons, including BTCL’s director Mohammad Toufiq, in the case filed for amassing illegal wealth worth about Tk 4 crore and hiding information of assets worth Tk 3.9 crore.