Lalbagh land office surveyor Asadul jailed after ACC trap catches him with Tk 1 lakh bribe

A court has ordered surveyor Md Asadul Islam (51) to be sent to jail after he was arrested with Tk 1 lakh in bribe money at the office of the Assistant Commissioner (Land) of Dhaka's Lalbagh revenue circle. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) arrested him in a trap operation on Tuesday morning.

In the evening the ACC produced Asadul in court and applied for him to be kept in jail. After the hearing, the court of Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Joshita Islam ordered him sent to jail. ACC lawyer Delwar Jahan confirmed the information.

ACC Assistant Director Md Mahabub Morshed filed the application to keep the accused in jail. It said Asadul Islam works as a surveyor at the Lalbagh revenue circle's Assistant Commissioner (Land) office, and that the ACC ran a trap operation over an allegation that he had demanded a bribe from a man.

According to the application, at around 11am on Tuesday the man gave the money to Asadul Islam in the surveyor's designated room at the Lalbagh revenue circle land office. After taking the money, Asadul placed it in the second shelf of the side table on his right. Members of the ACC trap team, who had been lying in wait, then caught him red-handed.

The application further said that when questioned about taking the bribe, Asadul Islam admitted it. Tk 1 lakh kept in a khaki envelope was later recovered from the second shelf of his side table, and the numbers of the recovered notes matched exactly the numbers of the notes the complainant had provided the previous day.

ACC Assistant Director Md Mahabub Morshed filed the case against Asadul under Section 161 of the Penal Code and Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947.

The ACC said retired soldier Md Monirul Islam took a registered irrevocable power of attorney from the owners of 282 decimals of land in Charkamrangi mouza under Lalbagh police station in Dhaka district. On April 27 he applied to the Dhaka deputy commissioner for demarcation of the land's boundary, separation of government and privately owned land, and preparation of a map.

But the boundary demarcation work remained unfinished for nearly six months. Monirul contacted the Lalbagh revenue circle several times, and at one stage was told to contact the office's surveyor Asadul.

According to the allegation, Asadul demanded Tk 80 lakh from Monirul in exchange for demarcating the boundary and completing the mutation. Monirul informed the ACC, which verified the allegation's initial truth and planned the trap operation.

Following that, a special team from the ACC's Dhaka district office-1 conducted the planned operation on Tuesday, during which Asadul Islam was caught red-handed while taking Tk 1 lakh in bribe money.