Chainman’s rule in land acquisition office

Chattogram deputy commissioner (DC) office chainman Nazrul Islam would take millions in advance as bribes through bank cheques.

Despite being a fourth class employee, he had complete control over the land acquisition (LA) section. He used to take bribes from the people who came to get the compensations for the lands acquired by the government for different projects.

With the money from bribes, Nazrul Islam and his wife Anwara Begum, a homemaker, now own illegal assets worth a total of Tk 112.12 million, including a car, a house, two flats and three shops. This information came up in a charge sheet placed by the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC).

Nazrul Islam was caught red-handed by the ACC along with DC office peon Taslim Uddin from a shop owned by his wife on 7 November 2019. The ACC recovered Tk 807,000 and a cheque of Tk 9.18 million that they took as bribe.

Later, the ACC filed a case over the incident and both Nazrul and Taslim were suspended from their jobs. The ACC filed the charge sheet in the case after four years of investigation on 25 September.

Apart from Nazrul and Taslim, the case was also filed against former LA section surveyor Md. Selim, agent Nasir Ahmed and former manager at Muradpur Branch of United Commercial Bank (UCB), Ibrahim Mia. Of them, Nazrul and Taslim are on bail and the rest are absconding.

Investigation officer of the case and ACC’s Chattogram office deputy director Md. Atiqul Alam said the LA section of Chattogram was largely in control of chainman Nazrul Islam. He developed a syndicate and used that to harass the landowners to get bribes from them in bank cheques. He would take some 10-20 per cent of the compensation as bribes. IN some cases, he took more money.

SPeaking about this, Chattogram additional district commissioner (ADC) AKM Golam Morshed Khan said, “Nazrul no longer works here. There is no scope of bribery here now. I don’t know how it was in the past.”

The ACC said in the chargesheet that Nazrul was the chainman of the Chattogram district land acquisition office. He used three shops in Chittagong Shopping Complex for bribery.

Nasima Begum, who got the compensation after paying bribes, said in her deposition that she bought a two-decimal-land in Sitakundu of Chattogram and built a house there.

In 2019, her land was acquired for a government project. After that, she went to the LA office in Chattogram. At one point, LA section surveyor Md. Selim gave her the cell number of Nazrul. Later, she had to pay Nazarul Tk 600,000 as a bribe to get a compensation of Tk 4.26 million.

Similarly, Nazrul took more than Tk 25 million from at least 17 other people like Nasima through bank cheques in advance, the ACC said.

This correspondent tried to reach Nazrul Islam over the phone for his comment in this regard. However, it was found switched off. He was not available at the shops he owned in the Gate-2 area of the city either.

The ACC sources say Nazrul joined the DC office as a fourth class employee at a salary of Tk 1,800 in 1994. He withdrew a total of Tk 2.3 million in total as salary and allowances. However, he owns millions now.

Chattogram chapter secretary of Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (SHUJAN), Akhter Kabir Chowdhury, said it was not possible for Nazrul alone to take such a large amount of bribery.

His senior officials, who were behind him, must be brought to book, he added.