Tk 74 lakh was being taken to Suranjit’s house

Missing Driver Azam Tells RTV

Opening a Pandora’s Box of midnight money scandal that led to the resignation of Suranjit Sengupta from railways ministry, missing driver Azam Khan has said on private TV channel RTV that the money was being carried to the minister’s residence.

Azam Khan has been missing since the minister’s sacked APS, Omar Faquque Talukder, suspended Railway Genneral Manager Yusuf Ali Mridha and Railways Police Commandant Enamul Haque were confined at Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) gate on April 9 midnight with Tk 70 lakh.

Due to his desperate move, Omar Faquque and others were held at the BGB gate and now he is disclosing the story behind the scandal.

Speaking on the TV channel from an undisclosed location, Azam Khan said the above personnel were going to Suranjit Sengupta’s residence with the huge amount of money to bribe the minister to get several hundred people appointed in the railways department.

“So far I know GM Mridha entered into a contract with APS Faquque to secure the job with the help of the minister”, he said.

Azam referred to a conversation of APS Faquque, GM Mridha and Commandant Enamul Haque that Tk 10 crore will be given to the minister in exchange for appointment of 600 people.

The scandal resulted in a critical situation for the government, forcing Suranjit Sengupta to resign from the post of railways minister on April 16, 2012. APS Faquque was sacked while GM Mridha and Commandant Enamul Haque were suspended. Later the trio remained fugitive for some days to avoid arrest.

On August 14, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed cases against them as they concealed information in their submitted wealth statements.

Besides, ACC has approved filing another case against Yusuf Ali Mridha for his involvement in railway appointments.

Azam said, “When they were making it to the minsiter’s house, I turned the incident into another direction.”

He said the above mentioned officials started their journey with the money from house no 3 located at road no 5 in Dhamamondi.

Narrating the incident of that night he said “When I drove the car to GBG gate, they asked me where I was going. I told them as you are carrying bribe money, I have entered the car to the gate to get you arrested.”

He said at first the officials offered him Tk 5 lakh, then half and finally the whole amount to drive the car out of GBG gate and let them go free.

“I turned down their request, saying that I won’t be an accomplice in the bribery.”

He mentioned the name of some Mashiur who is involved in this appointment business.

“He [Mashiur] handed over a cheque for Tk 3 crore to the APS to secure the job of several hundred people in railways department”, he added.

Azam said on several occasions, the persons made it to the minister’s house with bribe money.

He said the APS and others tried to shift the responsibility to the government. “They asked me to drop the matter on the pretext that the government is involved in the incident.”

“But I know the Prime Minister has a stand against corruption. She wants that no corrupt goes scot-free.”

He made a plea to the government to protect him as he is hiding to avoid the wrath of the above mentioned officials.

In an instant reaction, Suranjit Sengupta rejected the statement made by driver Azam.

“No, these are false and fabricated allegations against me. These are bogus stories created by the media.”

The minister without portfolio questioned as to why driver Azam did not make his statement to the inquiry committee earlier.

“Why did he not go through investigation process? He has been absconding for long. From where has he appeared now? Everything is designed to make me scapegoat”, he told reporters.