Atique Murshed refutes corruption allegations over Nagad involvement

Atique Murshed, an official at the ministry of post and ICT, has refuted corruption allegations raised against him for his involvement with state-backed fintech service “Nagad.”

On Friday, a daily Bangla print media published a report where it cited “anonymous Nagad insiders” to allege that multiple individuals, including Atique, is committing corruption at Nagad.

Atique is a personal assistant of Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, the chief adviser’s special assistant at the postal and ICT ministry.

Atique, despite having no official role at Nagad, regularly sits at a high-ranking officers’ desk at the company headquarters, the news report alleges. In this way, he has embezzled Tk150 crore from Nagad, and also exercised influence to appoint numerous relatives, including his wife, to top posts at Nagad.

However, in a facebook post, Atique claimed he has visited Nagad only twice for official purposes on 18 and 20 May. On these two days, Atique hosted meetings with officials to discuss stabilizing the fintech company and keeping its operations smooth, he said ridiculing media claim that the meetings were “held behind closed doors.”

Following the allegations, the Directorate of Post clarified that Tk43 crore was withdrawn from company funds over the past two months for paying operational costs, Atique claimed.

Furthermore, his wife secured a “temporary position” at Nagad by dint of her own merit and qualifications, Atique claimed.

However, the social media is abuzz with an unverified image of the job identity card belonging to Atique’s wife. According to the card’s information, Atique’s wife is working as a “compliance manager” at Nagad on a “permanent basis.”