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HC for probing ‘Bangabandhu Corner’ book forgery


Bangladeshpost
Published : 03 Sep 2020 09:26 PM | Updated : 06 Sep 2020 10:21 PM

The High Court has directed to investigate the theft of intellectual property and forgery of books, distributed in the ‘Bangabandhu Corner’ of primary education institutes, reports BSS.

Primary and Mass Education Secretary, Bangla Academy Director General (DG) Habibullah Siraji and Liberation War trustee Museum Mofidul Haque have been asked to investigate the matter and submit the report before the court within a month.

A High Court division bench comprising Justice Obaidul Hassan and Justice AKM Zahirul Haque passed the order on Thursday.

Barrister Syed Sayedul Haque Sumon told BSS that a writ petition was filed in the High Court on August 31 seeking a judicial or independent inquiry into the alleged fraud and irregularities in the purchase of books for the Bangabandhu Corner in the country’s primary schools.

He also said that the writ petition was filed in the name of two publishing houses by attaching a report published in the media about the supply of books worth more than Rs 20 crore.

Liberation War Affairs Secretary, Primary and Mass Education Ministry Secretary, Primary and Mass Education Department Director General, Journey Multimedia Limited, Swadhika Publishers and Sharmin Sultana, wife of journalist Nazmul Hossain were made defendants in the writ petition. According to recent media reports, Taka 130 crore was allotted for 65,600 government primary schools to buy books on Bangabandhu and his family members, while only eight books have been bought with Taka 28 crore out of the allocation. It has been alleged that in the name of supplying this book, Taka 17,57,56,500 was allocated for ‘Journey Multimedia Limited’ and Taka 3,13,38,900 was allocated for ‘Swadhika Publishers’.

A journalist named Nazmul Hossain is associated with these two publishing houses.

According to the report published in the media, out of the total allocation of Taka 28,78,12,200, Taka 20,70,86,400 was allocated for ‘Journey Multimedia Limited’ and ‘Swadhika Publishers’.

The book titled as ‘Bangabandhu Manei Shadheenota’ is being published in the name of Journey Multimedia which was first published by the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs and the about Bangabandhu’s imprisonment days titled as ‘3053 Days’ was published by the Department of Prisons.

Editor of the book ‘Bangabandhu Manei Shadheenota’, Amitabh Deuri complained that the credit line of the book has been changed, and the second and third editions of the book were published without informing him.

Former Pro-Vice Chancellor of Dhaka University Nasreen Ahmed alleged that the book ‘Amar Sheikh Russell’, of which she is the editor, is being supplied to ‘Bangabndhu Corner’ by Swadhika Publishers without informing her.