The New Nation - Internet Edition

bdnews24.com, Dhaka

The parliamentary probe body looking into corruption charges against former speaker Jamiruddin Sircar, and other top officials of the eighth parliament, completed its report on Sunday after more than three months of investigations.

"We have finalised the report, but we will not make it public before submitting it to the House," Fazle Rabbi Mian, head of the probe committee, told bdnews24.com Sunday after a meeting at parliament building.

"As [Sircar], his deputy Akhter Hamid Siddiqui and the former chief whip Khandaker Delwar Hossain did not turn up before the committee to give their version of events, as requested, we have prepared the report according to our own investigations."

"The House is the right place to decide on the report," he said.

Sircar, Siddiqui and Delwar Hossain were summoned to a meeting on June 27, to answer the graft charges, but did not appear.

The committee chairman had said on the day that Sircar and the two leaders were in "contempt of parliament" by not attending the meeting, convened mainly to hear their versions on the alleged corrupt practices of the previous BNP-led parliament.

The parliamentary probe committee has convened 11 times, since its formation in March, to investigate charges brought by MPs of the eighth parliament and to prepare its report.

The Mian committee has charged that Sircar, now a BNP MP, drew Tk 27 lakh as medical allowances without the permission of the then prime minister and leader of the House Khaleda Zia.

It alleged the former speaker wasted millions of taka in the name of beautifying the parliament secretariat during his tenure as speaker from October 28, 2001 to January 25, 2009.

It also said Sircar appointed staff in the parliament secretariat without maintaining district quotas.

Regarding the allegations against him, Sircar has told bdnews24.com, "The allegations are vague and not specific. The probe body has been formed with an ulterior motive."

Former deputy speaker Akhter Hamid Siddiqui is charged by the probe committee with misusing millions of taka of parliamentary by procuring vehicles beyond his entitlement.

In a letter sent to the committee head, however, Siddiqui said he used the vehicles in line with the tradition set by his predecessors.

Siddiqui also demanded punishment of the committee head Fazle Rabbi Mian for making "false statements" about him to the media.

Former chief whip Khandaker Delwar Hossain, now BNP's secretary general, is charged by the Mian committee of taking valuable equipment from the parliament secretariat and giving "false statements".

Delwar has refused to give any reaction on the charges against him.

Speaker Abdul Hamid, in the face of demands by MPs, formed the 11-member probe body on March 19, to investigate alleged corrupt practices in the eighth parliament under the past BNP-led government.