ACC finds foreign currency, gold, FDR docs worth Tk5cr from ex-BB governor SK Sur’s locker

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has recovered assets worth about Tk5 crore from a "secret locker" belonging to former Bangladesh Bank deputy governor Sitanshu Kumar Sur Chowdhury, known as SK Sur.

The locker held one kilogram of gold, and foreign currencies amounting to $169,300 and €55,000, as well as FDR worth Tk70 lakh, said ACC Director Kazi Sayemuzzaman. 

He led a seven-member team of the commission as part of a drive at the Bangladesh Bank headquarters on Sunday (26 January) where SK Sur's locker was found holding assets totalling Tk4.75 crore.

The ACC director said they had information regarding SK Sur's undisclosed assets, and a notice was issued for him to submit a wealth statement. However, he did not comply. 

"Therefore, we conducted a search to investigate his assets."  

He continued, "We found materials in his locker at the Bangladesh Bank. Based on this, with court approval, we began the search at 11am on Sunday." 

He further added, "We have prepared a 22-page inventory of the seized items, which will be presented in court on Monday. The assets found are now under the custody of the Bangladesh Bank. We will follow whatever further instructions the court provides."

A subsequent investigation will determine whether these assets are from legal sources, he added. 

Bangladesh Bank's Executive Director Amjad Hossain Khan said, "Following the court order, the ACC conducted the search at the locker according to the central bank's procedures. The recovered assets are under the custody of the central bank. They will be temporarily deposited in the government treasury, or the court will decide the next course of action."  

During the operation, Executive Magistrate Syeda Saleha Nur was also present.  

On 19 January, ACC recovered documents of Tk 16.25 lakh and fixed deposits worth Tk 4.5 crore from SK Sur's Dhanmondi house. There, they found documents of three lockers in the central bank. The ACC was allowed to open these lockers on the court's order.

Later, the agency learned that it was not a vault but a locker (safe deposit) for keeping the valuables of officers and employees at the central bank. After that, the ACC sent a letter to the central bank asking it not to transfer and hand over the contents of the locker.

On 21 January, the central bank's security branch sent a return letter to the ACC informing it of the suspension of the transfer of the locker contents. The letter said that according to the rules, personal valuables of officers and employees working and retired at the bank are kept in Bangladesh Bank lockers in their names in packets or boxes under their responsibility and sealed for 20 years from the date of deposit.

Then, on 23 January, the Bangladesh Bank said in another letter that SK Sur had kept valuables in three locker numbers. Among them, on 25 September last year, he nominated his wife Suparna Sur Chowdhury for SD-44/61 and on 25 February 2018, for SD-48/12. On July 12, 2017, he nominated his daughter Nandita Sur Chowdhury for the items kept in SD-47/35.