Photo: Collected
Ali Akbar Khan, former chairman of Bangladesh Technical Education Board (BTEB), whose wife was arrested in a case filed over forging and selling fake certificates, was questioned at the DB office on Tuesday (23 April) afternoon.
He has been given two days by the DB authorities. If he does not provide an explanation regarding the allegations against him within these two days and if evidence of involvement in the forgery is found later, action will be taken against him, said DB Chief Harun-Or-Rashid at a press conference in the DB office on Tuesday evening.
He said, “I believe the Chairman of the Board cannot evade responsibility for this incident. We will now see whether he really knew about the certificate sale incident."
Harun said, "The Chairman and the Exam Controller have neglected their duties or have deliberately overlooked them. We have questioned them about it. Despite knowing about such forgery, no action was taken. About his wife's involvement, he claimed he didn't know."
"In our interrogation, we have tried to find out how this forgery occurred month after month using the password of the technical board's website. He is the chairman of that institution. The institution operates under his guidance and leadership. Documents are being taken from that institution which can be seen through CCTV footage. Yet no action was taken. Moreover, the Exam Controller has also been signing certificates month after month,” he said.
The DB chief also said, "Ali Akbar Khan's wife has also been questioned. She admitted in the interrogation that she took money from the system analyst Shamsujjaman."
After the questioning at DB office, Ali Akbar Khan told the media, “As the Chairman of the Board, I cannot evade responsibility for the certificate sales.”
When asked about his wife's arrest, he said, “I don't know anything about my wife's situation. I don't know what information the intelligence agency has obtained. But I believe she is being arrested without any crime.”
Ali Akbar Khan said, “An incident has occurred. A thorough investigation should be conducted into this matter. Those responsible should be punished. In this case, we are ashamed and saddened!”
About the system analyst’s claim that he took a TK20 lakh bribe, Ali Akbar said, “It is false, baseless, and without foundation. Investigation is ongoing.”
On April 1, DB arrested the system analyst and one of his cohorts with certificates, certificate-making papers. Later, several others were also arrested. The latest arrest was Sehela Parveen, the wife of Akbar Ali Khan. Following her arrest, DB summoned him for interrogation.
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