Former MP Shafiqul accrued wealth cornering his rivals

Former member of parliament Shafiqul Islam was busy suppressing the student-mass movement in Natore streets even in the morning of fateful 5 August.

After he had gone into hiding immediately before Awami League government was toppled on the day, enraged people attacked his palatial mansion - ‘Jannati Place’ - in Kandibhitua area in the town.

Now people in droves come to visit ‘Jannati Palace’ which has turned into a ruin due to public wrath. The lavish house was emblematic of Shafiqul Islam’s wealth accrued over the last one and a half decades.

Shafiqul became a people’s representative first in 2008 as he was elected a chairman of upazila parishad. Popularly known by his nickname Shimul, the Awami League leader got elected as a member of parliament unopposed in 2014. Since then, he got elected to parliament thrice and amassed a huge sum of wealth. Shimul constructed splash mansions home and abroad in his and his wife’s names.

Locals and political leaders say that Shafiqul has become the owner of huge wealth by resorting to irregularities and corruption. Shafiqul harassed the leaders and activists of the opposing political parties through lawsuits and attacks to consolidate his own power. Even leaders and activists of his own were not spared from his torture.

He cornered people of Awami League to place his close relatives and the supporters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami in party positions.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has launched an investigation into his vast illegal wealth. Besides, Bangladesh Bank’s financial intelligence unit, BFIU, has seized the bank accounts of Shafiqul and his wife Shamima Sultana Jannat.

In the affidavit submitted before upazila elections in 2008, Shafiqul mentioned his annual income to be Tk 200,000 as a contractor. At that time, his total wealth was around Tk 1.4 million. The wealth of the wife was a little more than Tk 450,000. He had no car and house in his own name.

As per the affidavit submitted before 2024 general elections, Shafiqul’s annual income was slightly over Tk 5.3 million and net wealth was nearly Tk 50 million (49,531,000).

His wealth increased over 34 times in 15 years. Interestingly, his wife’s income rose a whopping 163 times by this time, reaching Tk 75 million. Shafiqul’s wife, who had no source of income once, now earns over Tk 2.8 million annually.

Shafiqul built ‘Jannati Place’ on 28 decimals of land at Kandibhitua PTI road immediately after being MP for the second time.

Two persons who have close ties with Shafiqul’s family told Prothom Alo that the three-storied building’s main attraction was its swimming pool and gymnasium.

Locals assume he spent at least Tk 30 million to build the palace which has now turned into a ‘ghost house’.

During a visit to the house on 9 September, it was found that the huge crafted gate at the main entrance is no longer there and replaced by corrugated sheets and bamboo. From the doors and windows of every room to the grill of the balconies, all have been taken away.

Nothing remains inside except the charred ashes of the furniture. Parts of four charred cars are strewn in front of the house and behind the garage. The swimming pool on the rooftop is shorn of any water. There is no instrument left in the gym. The smell of burnt furniture and clothes are still in the air.

Not only in the country, Shafiqul owns a luxurious house at Scarborough town near Toronto in Canada. The house was bought in 2020. Shafiqul’s close aides said the house was bought for over 1.7 million Canadian dollars which is equivalent to around Tk 120 million.

Prothom Alo carried a report on 7 October 2021 on Shafiqul’s penchant for luxury houses. On 6 August, eight buses in the names of Shafiqul’s family members were torched.

Several Awami League leaders wrote to party chief Sheikh Hasina about Shafiqul’s huge wealth. They alleged Shafiqul bought five flats in Dhaka’s Adabor Ring Road in the names of his wife, mother-in-law and brother-in-law. They also alleged Shafiqul Islam owns 16 bighas of agricultural land and assets in the US, Malaysia and Thailand.

When asked about reported huge wealth last year, Shafiqul claimed to Prothom Alo that all these allegations were ‘propaganda’. He claimed that he inherited some wealth while earning some by doing business.

Shafiqul also said his wife is also involved with business. Asked what businesses the couple had, he replied, “I cannot disclose everything. I mentioned everything in my tax file.”

A Swecchasebak League leader close to Shafiqul on condition of anonymity told Prothom Alo that his main sources of income was taking commission from government projects, controlling contracts, manipulating recruitments, extortion from transport sector, government incentive and misappropriation of money of TR and Kabikha projects.

None from Shafiqul’s family was at the leadership positions in Awami League before he was elected MP.

He became Natore district Awami League’s general secretary in 2015. Soon he elevated his wife Shamima Sultana to the post of vice president of the district Mohila Awami League.

Besides, he made his elder brother Shariful Islam a member of district Awami League, elder sister Seema Parveen another vice president of the district Mohila Awami League, brother Sirajul Islam the vice president of pourashava Awami League, another brother Sajedul Alam a member of the district Jubo League, sister-in-law Synthia Islam a vice-president of the district Jubo Mohila League, sister Nasima Rahman a joint general secretary of the district Mohila Awami League, sister-in-law Sajedur Rahman alias Bura Chowdhury as member of district Awami League, sister Nazli Rahman as vice-president of district Mohila Awami League, brother-in-law Amirul Islam Jahan as treasurer of district Awami League, nephew Nafiul Islam as pourashava Swecchasebak League’s general secretary, brother-in-law Khandakar Omar Sharif Chauhan as social welfare secretary of district Awami League.

There is also an allegation that he rehabilitated many people involved with BNP and Jamaat to Awami League.

Sources said Shafiqul would control the contracting sector through his brother-in-law Mir Amirul Islam alias Jahan. Investigation revealed that Amirul Islam and his two brothers received the contract of works worth Tk 3.8 billion since 2014.

There are complaints of delay in  completion of work and substandard work in these projects. There was even an instance of torturing an engineer for raising questions about the standard of work.

However, Amirul Islam claimed to Prothom Alo that he obtained the work orders by his own competence.

Sajedur Rahman alias Bura Chowdhury, another brother-in-law of Shafiqul, was engaged in the business of fish farming by leasing government reservoirs.

After Shafiqul became the MP, most of the government water bodies came under his control. Shafiqul’s younger brother Sajedul Islam became the general secretary of Transport Owner Association almost forcibly in 2016.

He would collect a huge amount of tolls from the transport sector. Besides, there are allegations of extorting money in the name of settling disputes between rich people.

Since Shafiqul became the MP, BNP and Jamaat were not allowed to hold any programme in Kanaikhali area, the hub of Natore town. He was behind the incarceration of thousands of opposition leaders and activists by filing trumped up cases using the police.

In Natore, BNP and Jamaat men came under attacks by masked men between 16 October and 12 November last year. Of nine such incidents, at least seven took place in Shafiqul’s parliamentary constituency Naldanga and Natore Sadar.

Naldanga upazila Jamaat’s secretary Fazlur Rahman said some masked men attacked him on 26 October last year on the street and cut his tendons.

Jubo League activists shot district BNP’s member Saiful Islam openly on 29 October at the Station Bazar area in Natore town. Saiful had to stay at the hospital for two months. Miscreants on 12 November kidnapped a Jubo Dal member and broke hands and legs.

Naldanga upazila BNP’s general secretary Sakhawat Hossain alleged that all these attacks were carried out by people from outlawed extremists hired by Shafiqul. Shafiqul prohibited the police from taking cases over these incidents.

District BNP’s convener Shahidul Islam and member secretary Rahim Newaz also came under repeated assaults by Shafiqul’s ‘helmet bahini’.

Rahim Newaz told Prothom Alo that Shafiqul would back incidents of shootings and crude bomb attacks inside government offices to get contracts of work for him or others.

Sources said Natore-4 constituency’s former MP Abdul Kuddus could not attend party programmes inside the town despite being president of district Awami League due to the threat of Shafiqul. No banners or posters of Kuddus could be hung in the town.

District Awami League’s joint general secretary Syed Golam Mortaza was also not spared. He was assaulted physically at a party meeting last year as he took a stance against Shafiqul.

On 11 September 2011, poultry traders Abdul Malek and Abdur Rashid of Bagha upazila in Rajshahi were abducted. They were taken to the Jubo League office in demand of extortion.

Shafiqul, at that time chairman of Sadar upazila, had involvement with that incident. The then MP Ahad Ali Sarker himself rescued the abducted persons. A case was filed in this connection.

Following an investigation, it has been found that when lawyer Amel Khan Chowdhury from Natore filed a lawsuit against gambling at the fair, Shafiqul retaliated by filing a counter case against him. 

Assistant teacher Tasnuva Rahman of Natore Government Girls’ High School also became a victim of his wrath. She was arrested after a case was filed against her for publishing a caricature of Shafiqul’s wife.

When a national daily ran a report about Shafiqul’s luxurious home, his followers organised protest marches and rallies in the town against the newspaper and a threat was issued to the journalist.

Ruhul Kuddus Talukdar, a member of the BNP’s executive committee and former president of the Natore district BNP, said, “Shimul has assaulted party leaders and workers to gain more importance from his party’s high command. For the past 15 years, he has not allowed us to hold any programmes in the town. He would gain praise by spreading false propaganda about my involvement in extremism. He didn’t display the minimum standard of political decorum.”

Sources said Shafiqul Islam is accused of embezzling government funds through irregularities and corruption, laundering money to purchase a house in Canada, and acquiring assets beyond his known income in his name and that of his family members.

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) deputy director (public relations) Akhtarul Islam said that a decision has been made to carry out an investigation against Shafiqul Islam after preliminary verification of the facts through the ACC’s intelligence unit.