The move came hot on the heels of the first ever anti-graft crackdown against institutionalised corruption in government agencies, starting with the decades old Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha (Rajuk).

Tasked with massive anti-corruption drive against high profile corruption suspects since February, the national taskforces have already gathered evidence against at least eight ex-lawmakers of the BNP for obtaining elusive plots from the Rajuk by providing fake declarations.

"We are going to file cases under the Section 420 against the politicians and others who cheated the government with false declaration," an investigator working in a taskforce group told The Daily Star yesterday.

The maximum punishment for the swindle is seven years behind bars.

"Our investigation exposed only the tip of a corruption iceberg," he said with a tinge of frustration, adding that the government will not only cancel their allotments but also confiscate the amount they deposited with Rajuk for land purchase.

Almost all of the around 1,000 Rajuk plots allotted during the BNP-led alliance rule are suspected to be obtained through false declaration or other irregularities. "We have found irregularities in the allotment of over 80 percent of the plots in the last five years," said the investigator, wishing not to be named.

Under its Uttara third phase project, Rajuk allotted 897 residential plots, 804 of those were given as per the list of former Housing and Public Works minister Mirza Abbas, disclosed another taskforce investigator. The project was eventually cancelled by this caretaker government.

One hundred plots, 50 each in Banani and Uttara, were allotted to BNP leaders and the people close to the coalition government.

The influentials exploited the vague Genuine Deserving quota of Rajuk to obtain plots by giving false declarations, the investigators said, disclosing the declaration doctoring by former deputy minister for land Ruhul Kuddus Talukder Dulu.

Dulu obtained a 5-katha plot in Banani with a declaration that he or his family does not have any house or plot in the Dhaka city. "But we found out that he, in fact, has two houses in city's Gulshan and Shyamoli areas," he said.

A Nam flat in Banani was also allotted to Dulu before the Banani plot, but he cancelled the flat allotment in favour of his Banani plot. His cancellation of the Nam flat allotment was also an instance of irregularity as he got that flat as being a lawmaker, pointed out the investigator.

"We are going to confiscate around Tk 60 lakh he deposited with Rajuk for the Banani plot including the registration fee," he said.

DULU IN THICK SOUP
Cheating case apart, a money-laundering case is also to be filed against the Rajshahi politician, who is accused of patronising dreadful militancy by the Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh.

Dulu stashed nearly Tk 6 crore in the Jamuna Bank (Gulshan branch) and Social Investment Bank (Gulshan and two old Dhaka branches) using fake names and addresses, found out a taskforce probe.

"We suspect, he used his portfolio as deputy land minister to make the money from dishonest contractors and through tender corruption," said a taskforce official.

The taskforce has already forwarded the finds along with evidence to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for filing a money-laundering case against Dulu.

The taskforces are also gathering evidence against some other high profile corruption suspects for money-laundering case.

His wife Sabina Yasmin also turned against him, giving confessional statement to a Dhaka magistrate on June 20 where she disowned the Tk 3 crore asset shown by her husband in her wealth statement submitted to the ACC.

Dulu declared that he has assets worth Tk 4 crore and that he has no contribution to the Tk 3 crore assets of his wife.

Having being interrogated by the taskforce, Sabina went for confessional statement in which she stated 'I'm just a housewife. I don't have any income source. These assets were amassed by my husband in my name.'

The taskforce investigators also tracked down Tk 4 crore assets outside the wealth statement he submitted.