Former inspector general of police Benazir Ahmed and his family members purchased lands from people, mostly from the Hindu and the Christian communities, in Gazipur.
Benazir Ahmed and his family also own about 600 bighas of land in Gopalganj and Madaripur, which they mostly took from the members of Hindu and Christian communities. The court, however, ordered the 621 bighas of lands belonging to them to be seized.
Besides, the Anti-Corruption Commission found Benazir owns a four-storey house in the capital’s Bhatara and his wife Zeeshan Mirza owns a seven-storey house in Sector 11 of the capital’s Uttara. ACC sources said Benazir sold the Bhatara house recently.
Locals from Kaiganj upazila of Gazipur said Benazir, his wife and children own land in Betutek village of the upazila. Benazir bought these plots of land at a very low price after intimidating them.
A source at the Gazipur district administration said Benazir and his family own about 181 bighas of land in Kaliganj upazila, but the ACC sources said they have found about 50 bighas and continue to search for more lands.
The Benazir family started buying land in Gazipur in 2017 when Benazir Ahmed was the director general of the Rapid Action Battalion. Analysing the land records, ACC officials said Benazir purchased land of the minority community people in Gazipur like he did in Gopalganj and Madaripur.
Benazir Ahmed purchased most of the land when he was the IGP from April 2020 to September 2022 and RAB DG from January 2015 to April 2020.
Concerned officials of the ACC said the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) allocated a plot to Mansur Al-Haque, father of Zeeshan Mirza, in Uttara and he gave the land to his daughter. Later, Benazir took a 150 million taka loan and built a seven-storey house on that land. ACC officials, however, said more money than the loan was required to complete the house construction and the sources of that money will also be found out.
Benazir’s project
The ACC moved to take over about 50 bighas of lands owned by Benazir and his family under 40 land deeds in Kaliganj, but they learned later that Benazir sold most land to 10 persons in 2022.
Nagori union parishad of Kaliganj is near the capital’s Purbachal area and land prices soar there day by day, but Benazir bought land in this area at a very low price.
The ACC looked into the Kaliganj Sub-Register Office and found six land deeds, and that show 208 decimals of land have been bought by Benazir and his family. A review of those documents revealed that members of the Hindu community owned 131 decimals of those lands and the Christian community owned 77 decimals before the former IGP took it.
Locals told Prothom Alo Benazir Ahmed threatened Hindu and Christian communities into selling their lands when he was the RAB DG.
Kaliganj sub-register Zahidur Rahman told Prothom Alo, “We have found six land deeds on Benazir and his family so far and the ACC sought information on these properties.”
The Benazir family bought lands from Sudev Das, son of Sudhir Das; Kashinath Mallik, Paresh Mallik and Ashutosh Mallik, sons of Naresh Mallik; Pradeep Rozario, son of Sylvester Rozario and Taramani, daughter of Sylvester Rozario; Henry Tchkanu, Richard Tchkanu, Raymond Ronald Tchkanu, sons of Lopez Tchkanu; Mrs Rebecca Quiah and Rina Tchkanu, daughters of Lopez Tchkanu, and Ashutosh Ghosh and Sushil Ghosh, sons of Harendra Chandra Gop.
Sushil Mandal is from Puinnartek village of Nagori union in Kaliganj upazila, He runs a jewellery business in Tantibazar, Dhaka. He was the first person to sell the land to Benazir in the area. Sushil Mandal told Ptothom Alo that it was during the pre-pandemic period when he sold 9 bighas of land to the Benazir family through the mediation of local agent Abdul Momen and he was paid 1.5 million taka a bigha.
Locals said the Benazir family have over 150 bighas of land in their area; several government officials who are close to Benazir and their relatives also have land there. So, locals named the place as ‘The Benazir Project.’
Nagori Christian Cooperative Credit Union Limited president Philip Gomez told Prothom Alo Benazir purchased huge amounts of land in their area. Many people were intimidated into selling their land at a nominal price, and no one dared to speak up, he added.