Staff Correspondent:

A court on Monday (February 24) ordered to freeze 358 bank accounts of Salman F Rahman, former private industry affairs adviser to ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, his family members and associates, over graft allegations.

Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Zakir Hossain Galib passed the order, allowing a plea of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

The ACC in its plea said the accused through placement share manipulation and forgery embezzled Taka hundreds of crore of the shareholders, took loans of around Taka 36 thousand crore from local and foreign banks by misusing his power and influence and embezzled and laundered the money.

The plea further said the accused are trying to hand over, relocate and modify the accounts, through which the money was transacted and if they succeed in doing so, ACC’s attempt to seize the ill-gotten money will turn futile.

“…so it is necessary to freeze these 358 bank accounts for the sake of proper investigation,” it added.