The Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Court on Wednesday imposed travel bans on five people, including former chairman of Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission professor Shibli Rubayat Ul Islam over allegations of corruption.
The four others are former lawmaker from Khulna-6 constituency Akhteruzzaman Babu, and his wife Sharmin Akter, former deputy press secretary to the Prime Minister鈥檚 Office Muhammad Ashraful Alam Khokon, and his wife Rezwana Nur.
The Anti-Corruption commission, meanwhile, on聽 Wednesday decided to initiate an inquiry against former Awami league lawmaker Golam Faruk Pinku for Lakshmipur 3 constituency over allegations of amassing illegal wealth through embezzling money from government projects and misuse of power.聽
Dhaka metropolitan senior special judge Mohammed Ash-Shams Joglul Hossain imposed the travel bans on the five people after the ACC submitted three separate petitions, seeking the bans, said ACC public prosecutor Mahmud Hossain Jahangir.
The ACC in its petitions said that inquiries were underway into graft allegations brought against Shibli, Ashraful, Rezwana, Akhteruzzaman, and Sharmin.
So, the travel bans are needed to prevent them from leaving the country for the sake of proper inquiries, the ACC added.
The court also sent copies of the orders to the special superintendent of police of Special Branch for the next course of action.
After the fall of the Awami League government on August 5, the ACC in early September decided to conduct an inquiry against Shibli Rubayat and eight other BSEC officials over allegations of abusing their power, engaging in forgery, and accumulating assets worth Tk 1,000 crore both at home and abroad.
On August 20, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit froze bank accounts of eight individuals, including Shibli, his son Zuhayer Sarar Islam, and six others connected to the stock market.
Dhaka University banking and insurance department teacher Shibli, also served as a dean of DU鈥檚 Faculty of Business Studies. He was first appointed as BSEC chairman in May 2020 and was reappointed in May 2024 for another four-year term.
He, however, resigned from his position on August 10, following a student-led mass uprising on August 5.
He had allegedly used all his connections and influences to ensure his tenure extension in May. He was also embroiled in numerous controversies.
He was accused of facilitating market manipulators, associating with questionable individuals, involving in irregularities in employee recruitment at the BSEC, and approving companies with poor financial health for listing.
Shibli also allegedly continued investing in the stock market under anonymous names, despite regulations prohibiting him from doing so as BSEC chairman.
He is further accused of granting controversial and preferential benefits to influential groups like Beximco, Bashundhara, and Younus Group.
A report published by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project on July 12, 2023, claimed that Shibli received payments from a bank account linked to a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme.
The report detailed his two-decade friendship with convicted scammer Javed A Matin, who helped launder proceeds from a $13 million fraud targeting Hong Kong-based Company Ming Global Limited.
Despite Matin鈥檚 2010 conviction in the United States for a pump-and-dump tax fraud scheme, which should have barred him from obtaining a stock-trading licence in Bangladesh, BSEC approved Matin鈥檚 Bangladeshi company, Monarch Holdings, for brokerage licence under Shibli鈥檚 tenure.
The ACC earlier took a decision to initiate inquiries over allegations of corruption against former PMO deputy press secretary Ashraful Alam Khokon, former lawmaker Akhteruzzaman Babu.