The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC), the regulatory body for the capital market, has taken disciplinary action by mandating the retirement of 17 officials. Additionally, five officials have been demoted to the lowest rank, as confirmed by a senior BSEC official.
This decision was made on August 18 in response to an unprecedented incident that occurred on March 5 the previous year. During this event, officials detained the then BSEC Chairman Khondoker Rashed Maqsood and other commissioners for nearly five hours, marking a first-time occurrence in the commission’s history.
On that day, BSEC officials restricted access by locking the main gate, disabling CCTV cameras, Wi-Fi, elevators, and cutting off power supply, leading to a disruptive and alarming environment. The army ultimately intervened to rescue the commissioners. The incident stemmed from protests against the forced retirement of Saifur Rahman, a former executive director of the BSEC, which also included a work stoppage causing disorder at the regulatory body for several days.
Following this incident, a security personnel assigned to protect the then BSEC chairman lodged a complaint against 16 officials at the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station in Dhaka on March 6 of the same year. In parallel with the criminal case, the BSEC initiated an inquiry and internal proceedings in accordance with government regulations. Subsequent to completing the necessary procedures, an investigative committee presented its findings against 23 officials.
Out of the total, the BSEC has taken action against 22 individuals, with one already dismissed in an unrelated matter and thus unaffected. The officials compelled into retirement include Rezaul Karim, an executive director; Abul Hasan and Mohammad Fakhrul Islam Majumder, directors; Nazrul Islam and Mollah Md Miraj Us Sunnah, additional directors; Rashedul Alam, joint director; Md Nannu Bhuiyan, Qazi Md Al-Islam, Shahidul Islam, Bani Yamin Khan, and Touhid Hassan, deputy directors; Aminul Haque Khan, Abdul Baten, and Sajjad Hossain, assistant directors; and Abu Yusuf, Kawsar Pasha Barshi, and Sameer Ghosh, personal officers.
Furthermore, Johnny Hossain, Rayhan Kabir, Tariqul Islam, and Maqsud Mila, assistant directors, as well as Salim Reza Bappi, a librarian, have been reinstated on compassionate and social grounds, taking into account their four-year service tenure at the commission.
