Dhaka, June 24 (EFE).– A Bangladesh court on Monday imposed an international travel ban on a top tax official and his family members to facilitate an investigation into allegations of amassing illegal wealth and money laundering against them.

Judge Mohammed Ash-Shams Jaglul Hossain of the Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Court imposed the ban on National Board of Revenue member Matiur Rahman, his wife, and his son, granting a plea submitted by the Anti-Corruption Commission.

“There is an allegation that the NBR official and his family members laundered a huge amount of money aboard. An inquiry is now going on against them. To facilitate the inquiry, we requested a travel ban against them. The court accepted our plea,” Anti-Corruption Commission lawyer Mir Abdus Salam told EFE.

The travel ban against Rahman and his family came a day after he was removed from his position as president of the National Board of Revenue’s Customs, Excise, and VAT Appellate Tribunal. Rahman was also removed from his position as director of a state-owned bank on Monday.

Rahman was exposed to public scrutiny after a video of his son, Mushfiqur Rahman Ifat, buying a goat for 1.5 million taka ($12,820) went viral on social media ahead of the Muslim festival Eid-al-Adha earlier this month.

He initially denied Ifat was his son, but local media confirmed their relationship by speaking to his relatives and revealed the fortune the tax official amassed while working as a public servant for years.

The media also disclosed that Rahman has two wives, one of whom is an elected public representative for the ruling Awami League. The details of the substantial assets belonging to his first wife, Layla Kaniz, are available in the public domain as an elected public representative, which created a fresh uproar, leading to his removal from the tax tribunal position.

Speaking to a local television channel last week, Rahman denied any wrongdoing, claiming that he earned his fortune by trading stocks. Allegations of corruption against senior government officials are not uncommon in Bangladesh, ranked 10th from the bottom and 149th from the top on the 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index by Berlin-based anti-graft watchdog Transparency International.

In May, the United States imposed sanctions on former Bangladesh army chief General Aziz Ahmed and his immediate family members for his alleged involvement in “significant corruption.”

The ACC is also investigating former police chief Benazir Ahmed on allegations of amassing wealth beyond his knowns sources of income.

Both Aziz and Benazir have denied the allegations against them. EFE

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