AL chief used to receive money from magnates

Awami League general secretary Abdul Jalil, who was arrested during anti-corruption crackdown on May 28, told interrogators that his party chief Hasina regularly received money from several industrialists and businessmen, usually Tk 50 lakh to Tk 1 crore from each ofthem before launching any political programme or a movement.
"Jalil also confessed that before the recently stalled general election, established businessmen and other wealthy people competed for AL tickets, and it was not a problem for people with illegally earned money to win party nominations," The Daily Star reports quoting sources.
Meantime, Abdul Awal Mintoo, a former president of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries who was also arrested on March 28, told investigators that Korean company Daewoo bribed the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina Tk 10m to close a deal for a frigate. Daewoo handed over the frigate on May 2, 2001.
The Tk 10m was deposited to an account which she supposedly has been using for the purposes of her party politics on her own discretion, said Mintoo, who was the local representative of Daewoo.