By NNN-PTI
Â
Dhaka : Bangladesh jail authorities today said they have prepared special accommodations for wives of high-profile corruption suspects, who have been detained along with their spouses.
"We have already received several lady detainees and expecting to receive several others in next few days," Deputy Inspector General Shamsul Haidar Siddiqui told PTI.
He said a corner of the high security Dhaka Central Jail was developed as a special cell naming it 'Banalata' or 'forest creeper' to accommodate at least 20 "VIP ladies."
His comments came as wives of at least five high-profile politicians were held for their own financial corruption or for abetting their spouses in amassing wealth illegally.
A Dhaka court yesterday issued a summon to wife of now detained former home minister Mohammad Nasim of ex-premier Sheikh Hasina's regime to face graft charges while officials said works were underway to frame charges against at least 10 other influential wives of high profile corruption suspects.
Sigma Huda, a high profile rights activist and wife of a former minister in the past cabinet of Khaleda Zia, was sent to jail three days ago on graft charges after the appellate division of the Supreme Court overruled a High Court decision scrapping a bar on her going abroad. Both Huda and her husband Nazmul Huda are in jail to face trial on corruption charges.
A Dhaka court last month sentenced to three years imprisonment the wife of a former state minister of the same government for helping him amass wealth through illegal means as it handed down 13 years imprisonment to the husband.
Ex-energy minister Iqbal Hassan Mahmud Tuku is now in jail along with his wife, one daughter and a son as all of them were charged for corruption or abetting corruption. Jail officials said wives of two former ministers were now in hospital for treatment under jail custody.
Â