88 bank accounts of Barkat, Rubel, 3 others to be frozen

The court has ordered 88 banks accounts of five persons, including expelled Faridpur town Awami League general secretary Sajjad Hossain Barkat and his brother Imtiaz Hasan Rubel, to be frozen. Imtiaz Hasan Rubel is the expelled president of Faridpur press club.

Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge KM Imrul Kayes issued the order on Thursday, following an appeal in this regard from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police.

Public prosecutor of the court, Taposh Kumar Pal, confirmed this to Prothom Alo.

Investigating officer in the money laundering cased filed with Kafrul police station, CID's assistant superintendent of police Uttam Kumar Biswas, had submitted the appeal on Thursday to freeze the bank accounts of these five persons.

The application stated that investigations have revealed that there were 88 banks accounts in the name of the accused Sajjad Hossain Barkat, Imtiaz Hossain Rubel, Barkat's wife Afroza Akhter Parveen, Rubel's wife Soheli Imrose Punam, Abdul Sadeq Mukul and their companies.

CID did not specify in its application to the court how much money was deposited in the accounts of the five persons.

CID inspector SM Miraj Al Mahmud on 26 June filed a money laundering case against Barkat and Rubel with the Kafrul police station. The case accused the two brothers of illegally amassing wealth of Tk 20 billion (Tk 2000 crore) and also of money laundering. The case was filed under Section 4 (2) of the Money Laundering Prevention (Amendment) Act 2015.

The charges stated that Sajjad and Imtiaz had made huge amounts of money by controlling the contracts of various government departments in Faridpur, including LGED, BRTA, and the roads and highways department in the district.

They also amassed illegal wealth through drug dealing and land grabbing. They owned 23 vehicles including buses, trucks, a Boulder van and a Pajero SUV. They siphoned off a significant amount of their funds out of the country by 'hundi' transfer.

It was further said that these two brothers would originally run errands for a BNP leader in Rajbari. They had not been wealthy at the time.

It was said that on 18 June, SM Miraj was assigned as investigating officer and began probing the case. It was found that these two brothers had illegally made at least Tk 20 billion (Tk 2000 crore).

On the night of 16 May, the house of Faridpur district Awami League president Subal Chandra Saha, on Mollah Bari road of Goalchamat in Faridpur town, was attacked twice. Subal Chandra Saha on 18 May filed a case with the Faridpur Kotwali police station in this connection, against unidentified persons.

On the night of 7 June, police conducted drives in Badarpur and other areas of the town, and arrested nine persons including Sajjad Hossain and his brother Imtiaz Hasan, as accused persons in the case of the attack Subal Chandra Saha's home.