Nearly 100 high-profile Bangladeshi politicians have fled to India and other countries to evade arrest under the military-backed government's massive anti-graft drive, officials claimed in Dhaka.
Police said 30 of the absconders have been sentenced for varied jail terms. The latest being prominent Awami League leader Abul Hasnat Abdullah who was handed down a 13-year jail term by a Dhaka court on Monday for illegally amassing wealth and concealing information.
A senior police official preferring anonymity said Abdullah was hiding in India along with his son, who was sentenced to eight-year imprisonment on a corruption charge earlier.
Abdullah, former parliamentary chief whip of Sheikh Hasina's Awami League, had been sentenced to nine years in jail by another court for tax evasion after trial in absentia.
Bangladesh police had earlier sought Interpol's assistance to track down the convicted politicians and suspects who fled the country after the anti-graft crackdown was launched by the interim administration in January last year following proclamation of state of emergency.
Police chief Noor Mohammad recently said they were trying to confirm the current whereabouts of the fugitives as many of them were hiding abroad with their family members.
The Prothom Alo newspaper, quoting unnamed political sources, on Tuesday reported that a number of politicians including Awami League leaders Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, Akhtaruzzaman Chowdhury Babu, AFM Bahauddin Nasim and former BNP minister Shahjahan Siraj and lawmaker Nadeem Mostafa were hiding in India.
The daily claimed former foreign minister Morshed Khan of Bangladesh Nationalist Party and other former ministers Abdullah Al Noman and Amir Khosru Mahmud were staying in Singapore.
It said at least six BNP leaders including former lawmaker and actor Monwar Hossain Dipzol were now staying in Malaysia while most others were hiding in Canada and Britain.
Some 80 high profile people, mostly politicians, including former prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and her arch-rival Khaleda Zia, have been arrested on graft charges.