Shrouded in Mystery

Photos: courtesy

The heist of 101 million US dollars from Bangladesh Bank's account with the New York Federal Reserve Bank has taken the country into a state of total confusion. This foreign currency reserve earned mostly by the hard earned income of the expat labourers are now running the roulette wheels of casinos. According to a report of Philippine's Daily Inquirer dated March 11, a large portion of the robbed money has already been transferred to some casinos via the country's Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation and this is why the high ranking investigative committee of the Philippines has little hope to recover the money. 

In Bangladesh, all the high ranking officials responsible are blaming each other. The Finance minister has explicitly said that officials of the central banks are involved with this heist and he is not sure whether the money can ever be recovered. 

However, there is no clue regarding how this massive bank heist took place, breaching the security of the safest and most secured bank reserve. When IT expert Tanvir Hassan Zoha, who had identified himself as an official of the ICT division of Bangladesh Bank, started to appear in the media and talked about how this bank heist took place, he suddenly vanished, soon after, into thin air before he could help dig deeper. The mysterious disappearance of Tanvir and the State's indifference to take any step to rescue him, who has already confirmed that he has evidence regarding the bank heist, is an extremely dubious incident. 

According to Tanvir's wife, Kamrunnahar, Tanvir was picked up from Kafrul by individuals in plainclothes on March 16, at around 1 am. The assailants nabbed Tanvir and his friend, Yamir, when they were returning home by a CNG run auto-rickshaw. After nabbing them, the assailants blindfolded Tanvir and Yamir, took them into two separate vehicles and on the way they released Yamir, still keeping Tanvir captive. Is it only a coincidence that Tanvir was abducted just days after he started speaking up about the bank heist before the media?

When Tanvir's family members went to Kalabagan Police station to file a General Diary (GD), the officer in charge informed them that the GD had to be filed at Kafrul police station, as Tanvir last talked with the family members from Kachukhet area. When they went to Kafrul police station, they said that the place of occurrence is under Cantonment police station. Again, the Cantonment police station told them that the place of occurrence is under Bhashantek police station. By the time the helpless family members reached Bhashantek police station, Tanvir's mother fainted and they had to return without filing a GD. Still, Tanvir's family could not file the GD. "Tanvir's mother is still very ill. We are so distressed that we could not go to Bhashantek again to file the GD," according to Tanvir's uncle. 

Strangely enough, the ICT division informed the media that Tanvir actually has no connection to the department. However, according to a report by Daily Prothom Alo dated March 20, 2016, Tanvir had regular connections to the ICT division till March 14. The report also said that the Post and Telecommunication division of the Ministry of Post, Telecommunication and Information Technology invited Tanvir to attend a conference chaired by the State minister of Post and Telecommunications, Tarana Halim. Earlier, Tanvir had worked as the Director (Operations) of the ministry's cyber security project-- the date of which had expired last year. 

When the government's ICT division could help trigger the investigation process to rescue Tanvir, the blatant disapproval by this government's body brings nothing but frightening disappointment for Tanvir's helpless family. The law enforcing agencies also have not taken any steps, showing the excuse that Tanvir's family members did not file any complaint and without any complaint they have no way to take any. As a result, the whole case of Tanvir's disappearance is still shrouded in mystery. 

As Tanvir has already talked about the bank heist, it is imperative to rescue him for the sake of proper investigation of one of the biggest cases of financial irregularity in the history of our country. And above all, when a citizen of the state is abducted, it is the state's obligation to come forward to help the family members and investigate who has abducted him and why.