11 customs officials jailed for Tk 185m embezzlement

A court has cancelled the bail of 11 customs officials and sent them to jail in an Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) case involving allegations of laundering 18.5 crore taka through fake exports and embezzling 3.71 crore taka in export incentives.

On Sunday, when the accused applied for permanent bail, Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md. Shahjahan Kabir rejected their application after hearing both sides and ordered them sent to jail. ACC Public Prosecutor Delwar Jahan Rumi confirmed the development, explaining that the accused had earlier surrendered to the trial court on April 16 after getting interim bail from the High Court, which the trial court had then granted. When the defense sought permanent bail on Sunday, the ACC strongly opposed it, and the court ultimately cancelled their bail.

The list includes NBR (National Board of Revenue) Customs Department Assistant Commissioners Jahangir Kabir and Mobin Ul Islam; former Assistant Commissioner Md. Zainal Abedin; revenue officers Jamir Hossain, A.H.M. Nazrul Islam, Amir Hossain Sarkar, Gourango Chandra Chowdhury, Farid Uddin Sarkar, and Md. Manjurul Haque; and former revenue officers Md. Abdus Sattar and Basudev Palok.
The ACC filed the case on November 23, 2025 against 26 people, including the 11 customs officials, with Deputy Director Md. Ahsan Uddin of the ACC’s Dhaka Combined District Office as the complainant.

According to the case details, a company called “Do Impex Limited” fraudulently showed paper-only export shipments to the UAE, Australia, USA, Canada, and Singapore between 2018 and 2021 without actually exporting any goods, with the accused allegedly colluding throughout the process.

The company submitted 41 total export bills to claim government incentives. A subsequent investigation found only 7 of these shipments involved genuine agricultural product exports – the remaining 34 shipments involved no actual goods being exported at all.

Despite this, the company brought in the full advance amount – $2,218,017.44 (equivalent to about 18.6 crore taka) – into the country through Agrani Bank based on the fake export claims. Additionally, the company withdrew and embezzled 3.71 crore (3,71,81,000) taka in cash government incentives based on these fraudulent exports.