Sadhan Chandra Majumder's absolute authority in Naogaon

Former food minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder was once known as a decent personality in his locality. But he became reckless after assuming the role of Naogaon district Awami League’s secretary in 2014. He elevated his relatives and associates to the top posts of Awami League, got embroiled in nomination-trade at local government elections and took absolute control of the crime world including controlling tenders, grabbing land and pond and extortion.

Sadhan Majumder became the food minister in 2019 after becoming a member of parliament for three consecutive terms from Naogaon-1 (Niyamatpur-Porsha-Sapahar) constituency. In 2024, he was given the charge of the food ministry for the second term. In the five and a half years of the ministry, he formed a syndicate with relatives and close businessmen to control the rice business.

Sadhan Chandra Majumdar went into hiding after the fall Awami League government on 5 August in the student-people uprising. He was arrested on the night of 9 October from the Bashundhara residential area of the capital. As the cadres of Sadhan are yet to be arrested, the locals are still afraid to speak up about his misdeeds.
 

After independence, Awami League’s politics in Naogaon would revolve around the party’s former central general secretary Abdul Jalil. Sadhan Chandra Majumdar came into politics through veteran politicians and gradually created a stronghold inside the party. After the death of Abdul Jalil, he became the general secretary of the district Awami League in 2014. Since then, he became the sole controller of who would be appointed to which positions of the Awami League and its affiliated organisations. He cornered all dissident leaders and activists. They have even been harassed in various ways including assaults and lawsuits. In the local government elections, instead of nominating ‘dedicated’ leaders, he allegedly picked incompetent and unpopular ones in exchange for money.

District Awami League’s former member Rezaul Islam once spoke up against Sadhan Chandra Majumder. He was punished by being axed from the district committee and even from Niamatpur upazila committee of the party. Not only from party posts, Rezaul was even dismissed from the post of director of Naogaon chamber of commerce and industry. Rezaul’s father Enamul Haque was also harassed by Sadhan Majumder.

Rezaul Islam told Prothom Alo, "My father sought party nomination in the election of 2018, resulting in a distance with him (Sadhan Chandra Majumder). Although my father was president of upazila Awami League, Sadhan would never invite him to any party programme after being minister.”

Niamatpur upazila Awami League’s former senior vice president Khalequzzaman said, “Sadhan Majumder established the Sadhan-League in our area. He made his younger brother Manoranjan the joint general secretary of the upazila Awami League, the younger daughter a member of the district and upazila Awami League and the elder daughter the vice president of the district Mohila Awami League. Using his unquestionable influence in the party, he made extensive nomination-business for the chairman and vice chairman posts in the union and upazila elections. He sued and attacked me and my supporters as I became an independent candidate against him in 2024.”

Shafiqur Rahman, Awami League’s member of education and human resources sub-committee, said, “Sadhan picked drug dealers, tender-manipulators and controversial figures as the leaders of the party to keep his own position unquestionable. Those who raised questions against him were sidelined. Not only in forming the committees of the party, he was involved with financial exchange while picking candidates for local government elections too.”

Talking to various government departments and contractors, it was learnt that Sadhan Chandra Majumder was de facto controller of deciding who will get the contract of any development work of various government departments including Local Government Engineering Directorate (LGED), Water Development Board, Roads and Highways Department (RHD) and Public Works.  The contractors had to pay 10 to 15 per cent of the total allocation of the project as bribe to Sadhan Majumder. Naogaon chamber of commerce and industry’s president Iqbal Shahriar (Rassel) and Sadhan's son-in-law and Naogaon pourashava Awami League’s general secretary Nasim Ahmed were in charge of distributing tenders and collecting commissions. Apart from this, district Awami League’s industry and commerce secretary Mostafizur Rahman, organising secretary Ahsanur Rahman and contractor Ali Akbar were members of the syndicate.

Monirul Islam, a listed contractor of LGED and RHD, told Prothom Alo, “None except Sadhan Chandra Majumder’s close associates including Iqbal, Nasim, Mustafizur and Ahsanur could even participate in most of the tender bidding. In most cases, contractors loyal to Sadhan would get the contract. Even though general contractors got work through the lottery, they were prevented from signing contracts with the company. No work could be done without paying 10 to 15 per cent commission to Sadhan.”

However, LGED’s executive engineer of the district, Tofail Ahmed, claimed, “All tenders are to be submitted online now. So there is no scope to give any work to a specific individual. But it is not the jurisdiction of the department to see if contractors pay any commission to anyone after getting the contract of work.”

Iqbal Shahriar and Nasim Ahmed are fugitives now. They could not be reached even after sending text messages and Whatsapp messages on their phone.

Contractor Ahsanur Rahman told Prothom Alo, “All the contracts I received in the last 10-12 years were won legally. Neither Sadhan Majumder nor anyone else helped me get these contracts. I had no involvement in obstructing the work of other contractors or collecting commission from anyone.”

There are hundreds of public ponds and water bodies in Sadhan Majumder’s upazila. Most of these were under the control of Sadhan Majumder’s brother Monoranjan Majumder alias Mona Majumder between 2009 and Awami League government’s fall on 5 August. Before that, locals would cultivate fish in these ponds and water bodies paying revenue to the government. But after Sadhan Majumder became MP, his brother suddenly became owner of these ponds. Mona Majumder’s men are still cultivating fish in these ponds without paying revenue to the government.  

Sekendar Ali, a resident of Ghatnagar village under Porsha upazila, said Mona Majumder grabbed many ponds of Gatnagar village including Choyghati, Paharia and Nosnahar. He would control these ponds using his political activists and would take a huge sum of money in exchange. Mona Majumder’s men are still holding the possession of these ponds without paying any revenue to the government.

Habib Mandal, a resident of Bishnupur village in Niamatpur, said, “Cadres of Mona Majumder grabbed one of my ponds after Awami League came to power in 2009. For the last 15 years I could not go to the pond that I inherited. I complained to the court, filed cases but did not get any remedy. My last recourse was to complain to Allah.”

Apart from ponds, allegations of encroachment of public and private arable land are there against Sadhan Majumdar's brother Mona Majumdar, nephew Debbrato Majumdar, Uttam Kumar Majumdar, Ujjal Majumdar and Utpal Kumar Pintu.

Taufiqur Rahman, a resident of Porsha's Mina Bazar area and former vice president of the upazila BNP, said, "Sadhan Majumdar, his brothers and nephews grabbed more than 200 bighas of land from me and my family. I could not even go near these lands for fear of Sadhan's brothers and nephews and his cadres. All the illegal grabbers have fled the area since 5 August.”

75-year-old Harzat Ali from Kushmoil village said, “The family of Sadhan Majumder suddenly got an Aladdin’s lamp since he became minister. Although his brothers and nephews were not chairman or MP, they enjoyed the clout of chairman and MP. Everything including public ponds and bazaars (local markets) were under their control.”
 
Manoranjan Majumder fled on 5 August. He could not be contacted on his mobile phone and WhatsApp regarding the complaint.
Sadhan's nephew Uttam Kumar Majumdar told Prothom Alo, "The allegations of usurpation against us are baseless. Had the allegations were true, at least one or two cases would have been filed in the police station or courts. Now propaganda is are being spread against us in a planned manner to degrade our family, taking advantage of the political changeover.”
 

Since Naogaon is one of the highest rice-producing districts, even a slight roil in the market in Nagaon affects the market in the country. Sadhan, who was a seasoned rice trader, created a syndicate with his relatives and close associates to control the rice market. There are allegations against them of intentionally destabilizing the rice market to make huge profits.

Family sources said Sadhan Majumder had involvement with rice trading and fertilizer dealerships between 1972 and 2009. Debabrata Majumder, son of Sadhan’s cousin Murali Mohon Majumder, now looks after the family business. Sadhan’s brother Monoranjan Majumder has a rice mill in Niamatpur. During Sadhan’s tenure, drives were conducted against illegal hoarding of rice at different rice mills, but Monoranjan’s warehouse was not touched even for a single occasion.  Allegations are there that rice is illegally hoarded at the warehouse of Monoranjan.

Farhad Majumder, general secretary of district rice mill owners’ group, told Prothom Alo, “We, the actual owners of rice mills, gave him various suggestions on different occasions to keep the rice market under control. But he never considered those suggestions. Rather some hoarders under the guise of rice traders were very close to him. He would take decisions on the suggestions from these hoarders. That’s why he failed to keep the rice market under control despite being a seasoned businessman.”
 

 Sadhan Majumder had movable and immovable assets worth slightly over Tk 1 million during 2008 general election and his annual income was Tk 250,000. After assuming the roles of MP and minister for 15 years, he has accrued wealth worth over Tk 102.3 million and annual income reached near Tk 40 million. That is, his wealth has increased 98 times in 15 years while annual income rose more than 157 times.  

As per the affidavit he submitted to the election commission before the general election in 2024, his immovable assets include agricultural land worth over Tk five million, non-arable land worth over Tk 4.5 million, and two pucca houses at Naogaon town and Niamatpur’ Shibpur. However, there is gossip among the locals that he owns a flat at Dhaka’s Bashundhara Residential Area and bought houses in Delhi, Kolkata and Australia in the name of his younger daughter.

Many close to Sadhan Majumder fled the area since the fall of Awami League government. Enraged mob attacked Sadhan Chandra Majumder’s house at Post Office Para in Naogaon town after Sheikh Hasina fled the country and set it ablaze. Moreover, houses and business establishments of his elder daughter, and nephew Utpal Kumar were attacked and torched.

Belal Hossain, general secretary of Shushasoner Jonno Nagorik’s Naogaon chapter, told Prothom Alo, “There are allegations of usurpation, tender-manipulation and amassing illegal wealth against Sadhan Majumder. None could speak up against him in fear till now. The government officials also could not take steps against him. Now the allegations against him should be investigated and measures should be taken.”