Court freezes 19 bank accounts of ex-senior secretary Shah Kamal, wife

A Dhaka court today ordered concerned authorities to freeze 19 bank accounts of Shah Kamal, former senior secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, and his wife Farzana Siddiqua in connection with corruption allegations.
Shah Kamal has a total of Tk 5.75 crore in 12 accounts while Tk 3.76 crore was found deposited in seven bank accounts of his wife.
Judge Mohammad Ash-Shams Joglul Hossain of Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge’s Court passed the order following an application by ACC Deputy Director Md Mahbubul Alam, also the inquiry officer of the matter, said bench assistant of the court.
ACC Public Prosecutor Mahmud Hossain Jahangir moved the application before the court on behalf of the ACC.
In the plea, the ACC official mentioned that the couple had amassed a huge amount of money through illegal means and there is a possibility of money being laundered if their bank accounts are not frozen immediately.
On August 17, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) arrested Shah Kamal from the city’s Mohakhali area. He is now in jail.
Earlier on August 16, DMP conducted a raid and recovered cash worth around Tk 3.11 crore, in both local and foreign currencies, from Kamal’s house at Babar Road in the capital’s Mohammadpur area.
Shah Kamal served as secretary from 2015 to 2019 and as a senior secretary from 2019 to 2020.
Of the Tk 3.11 crore recovered, Tk 3.01 crore was in cash, Tk 74,400 was in prize bonds and Tk 10.03 lakh was in various foreign currencies.
The foreign currencies include 3,000 US dollars; 1,320 Malaysian Ringgit; 2,969 Saudi Riyal; 4,122 Singapore dollars and 1,915 Australian dollars; 35,000 Korean won, and 199 Chinese Yuan.