The High Court (HC) has sought to know the progress of the investigation into two complaints filed with the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) regarding the purchase of 14 houses in the United States (US) by Dhaka Water Supply And Sewerage Authority (Wasa) Managing Director (MD) Engineer Taqsem A Khan.

The HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat gave the order verbally on Monday (9 January) after a national daily published news regarding Taqsem A Khan's 14 homes in the US.

It also asked the ACC to inform about the progress within 15 days.

ACC senior lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan brought the news to the court's attention.

According to the report, Taqsem A Khan bought these houses in several cities in the United States – costing thousands of crores of taka.

It has been alleged that he became the owner of these houses by smuggling money from the country. Several intelligence agencies including Interpol have started searching for the source of the money. Taqsem has been named as a suspect by the US intelligence watchdog.

Two complaints were filed with the ACC regarding Taqsem's purchase of 14 houses in the US and his inclusion in the list of money launders by international intelligence agencies.

In the complaint, the specific address of some houses, pictures, which houses were bought, and when and how much money has been spent are mentioned.

Although Taqsem has a lot of wealth including houses and cars in the US, he has no assets in Bangladesh. He does not live in the government residence on road number 55 of Gulshan-2. He lives in Nayapaltan, at his in-law's house.

In 2009, Engineer Taqsem A Khan was appointed as the MD of Dhaka Wasa. Since then, he has been reappointed multiple times. There are also allegations that the rules were not followed in the case of the controversial re-appointment of Taqsem A Khan.

Apart from this, there are many allegations against him including increase in project cost, syndicate in the appointment of contractors, bribery, contractual appointment of preferred people by creating posts, and OSD of people he didn't like.

His tenure has been extended a total of six times since his first appointment.

A case was filed against nine people including Taqsem A Khan on the allegation that Tk132 crore 4 lakh 17 thousand 460 of Dhaka Wasa Employees Multipurpose Cooperative Society was withdrawn and embezzled from six banks through various cheques with the direct help and instructions of Wasa MD Taqsem A Khan.

The investigation of the case has been entrusted to the ACC.

Earlier on 25 August last year, Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) sent a letter calling for all bank accounts of Taqsem A Khan.