Probe set to be relaunched into Hasina’s role in Novo Theatre graft

TDS Desk

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Tuesday announced its decision to relaunch probes into Padma Bridge graft allegations as well as three other cases over Novo Theatre corruption in which ousted dictator Sheikh Hasina was acquitted.

ACC Director General Akhter Hossain also told reporters that a letter has been sent to the Chief Adviser’s Office seeking information into Hasina’s role in embezzling Tk21,000 crore during her 15-year rule.

Letters have also been sent to the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit of Bangladesh Bank seeking information into offshore units and other foreign as well as domestic transactions of Sheikh Hasina’s immediate family members.

In 2002, during BNP government’s second tenure, the then Anti-Corruption Bureau filed three cases against Hasina, and other senior Awami League leaders including Tofayel Ahmed, Shah AMS Kibria, and Matia Chowdhury, claiming their involvement in Novo Theatre project graft.

The outgoing Hasina government had approved the Tk120 crore project to reimagine the Bhashani Novo Theatre as Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Novo Theatre.

In the final days of the government in 2001, the project was endorsed hastily without the presence of the 13-member quorum of ECNEC, and the project implementer was allegedly cherry-picked to serve vested interests.