The driver and a nephew of State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Zakir Hossain had collected money from some seven people of Kurigram with promises of jobs.
Upon a complaint and subsequent media reports, a representative of the state minister returned the money to the job seekers at the Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s (DMP) Detective Branch (DB) office in the capital on Sunday.
State Minister Zakir Hossain confirmed the development, saying he took action after learning about the issue.
“Some people from my constituency, Kurigram-4, used my name to collect money from a number of job seekers with promises of recruitment, but I was not aware of the issue. Learning about it, I entrusted a certain person with the repayment of the money. I heard that it has already been returned,” he said.
Abu Sufian, one of the victims, also confirmed that he had received the money back. In a conversation, he said, “The state minister’s driver and a nephew took the money with promises of jobs at primary schools. I collected Tk 900,000 from seven candidates and handed it over to them.”
He further said, “A representative of the state minister came to the DB office and returned the money. Additional Deputy Commissioner (DB) Fazle Elahi took care of the money handover process.”
When the involvement of a state minister came to light, no DB officials agreed to provide a statement over the issue. However, a source disclosed that ADC Fazle Elahi was intermediating the repayment process.
The police official could not be contacted despite repeated calls on his mobile phone.
Three victims, along with Abu Sufian, went to the state minister’s residence on the capital’s Minto road on Thursday. He alleged that their request for repayment led to an altercation and they faced an attack there.
At one stage, Abu Sufian crossed the wall and entered the adjacent DB office, while the two others managed to run off the scene through the entrance.
