DHAKA – A court here today ordered the seizure of income tax documents belonging to the Centre for Research and Information (CRI) as part of an investigation into a case filed by the ACC against eight individuals including Sajeeb Wazed Joy, son of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina and his sister Saima Wazed Putul. Judge Shahjahan Kabir of the Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Court issued this order as the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) moved a petition in this regard.
According to the ACC’s petition, the case was filed over allegations involving the receipt of grants by the CRI from various companies, the provision of income tax benefits and the misappropriation of funds. Other accused in the case include CRI Trustee Radwan Mujib Siddiq, former State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid Bipu, CRI’s Executive Director Shabbir Bin Shams, former National Board of Revenue Chairman Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, former Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal and Tax Appellate Tribunal member Rowshan Ara Akhter.
The application stated that taka 45,35,95,000 was received from 23 companies as CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) funds. The organization’s total income from the 2013–2014 to 2023–2024 tax years is reported as 100,31,40,486. Of this amount, it is alleged that 15,68,59,521 has been misappropriated.
The ACC further stated in its application that over 2.4785 billion taka was deposited to 25 bank accounts belonging to CRI, while more than 1.9121 billion taka was withdrawn. The total volume of transactions across these accounts exceeds 4.39 billion taka. Additionally, there is an allegation that the government suffered a financial loss due to the non-payment of taka 36,52,742 in income tax.
The application also alleged that a notification was issued through an abuse of power to grant income tax benefits to CRI. Allegations regarding the granting of illicit tax benefits to the organization, as well as collection and misappropriation of funds through donations from various companies are currently under investigation.
The case has been filed under sections 409 and 109 of the Penal Code, section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 and relevant provisions of the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012, according to the application.
In the interest of proper investigation, AKM Murtuza Ali Sagar, an Assistant Director at the ACC and the Investigating Officer for the case submitted an application to seize all relevant records including the permanent and miscellaneous sections of the income tax files (TIN: 575941916304) for the organization, which are maintained at Circle-116, Tax Zone-6, Dhaka, covering tax years up to 2025–2026. The court considered the application and issued an order for the seizure of these documents.
