Forest official accused of fund fraud
Staff Correspondent
A contractor accused a forest official at a press conference in Dhaka yesterday of embezzling his bills through forged documents and threatening him with death. M A Jalil of Mrs Asad Enterprise alleged that Md Anawarul Islam, then director of the Botanical Garden, did not pay him about Tk 23.37 lakh in bills despite completion of work. He alleged Islam was now threatening him with death if he did not withdraw cases filed against him. Jalil said he got nine work orders of the Botanical Garden in 1999-2000 period involving Tk 23,37,100 through open bids and completed the work that included building cactus house, erecting humidifier and mist spray and supplying orchids and cacti. The contractor said as he filed nine arbitration cases with Dhaka sessions judge's court, Islam, now the deputy conservator of the forest department, was sending some unknown hooligans to threaten him to withdraw the cases, or face death. He said he applied to the higher authorities seeking the bills, but did not get any response.
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