Fraudulence to get July Foundation donation

Farhana Islam is Mohiuddin Sarker’s aunt in relation. They went to the office of the July Shaheed Smrity Foundation for the financial donation provided by the government claiming that they sustained injuries during the July uprising. However, they were caught red-handed there.

They submitted necessary medical documents supporting their claim. However, it was found during the verification that they both submitted exactly the same x-ray report.

Later, at one point of questioning, Farhana and Mohiuddin confessed that they were not injured during the uprising. Fahana’s husband Nazirul Bashar forged the medical documents for them. Nazirul is one of the owners of New Life General Hospital and Diagnostic Centre in Keraniganj.

Similarly, many more people are coming to the July Shaheed Smrity Foundation office seeking the government donation, who were actually sustained injuries in different sorts of accidents, including road crashes. However, they are claiming they were injured during the July uprising.

So far, three cases have been registered with the Ramna police station in the capital over similar incidents. The foundation officials say they found at least 50 cases of forgery. Besides, of the 199 applications from the office of Thakurgaon civil surgeon, 156 contain false claims, they suspect. The foundation has sent a letter to the civil surgeon office over the matter.

Meanwhile, many have already got the money in between the verification processes. So far, the foundations have retrieved Tk 300,000 from three persons who forged documents to claim themselves as injured members of the July uprising.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, July Shaheed Smrity Foundation chief executive officer (CEO) Mir Mahbubur Rahman, brother of July martyr Mir Mahfuzur Rahman, says they are identifying cases of forgery and fraud almost every day.

The frauds won’t be able to take any chance once the list of martyrs and injured of the July uprising is completed through proper verification, he said adding, “The foundation lacks manpower. It’s taking time to provide the assistance to the actual victims after scrutinising all the applications. The foundation’s image is being heavily tarnished due to the delay.”

The district administration, office of the civil surgeon and the special cell on mass uprising related issues, verify the application before including a name to the list of injured and martyrs of the July uprising. As of yesterday, names of some 834 persons have been registered as martyrs and 12,049 people as injured in the management information system (MIS) of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). The applicants for donation from the July Shaheed Smrity Foundation must have their names in the MIS.

The foundation has so far provided assistance to families of 686 martyrs and 3,719 injured people.

The government will provide assistance to the martyr families and injured persons. Apart from that, the foundation is also providing financial donations. The July Shaheed Smrity Foundation was founded on 10 September last.

Farhana Islam and Mohiuddin Sarker went to the foundation office at 10:00am Sunday and stayed there till 8:00pm. They kept calling Nazirul Bashar continuously after their forgery was caught red-handed. The foundation officials also called him several times. Although he received the calls several times, he did not show up there.

Later, Nazirul sent his elderly father to the office in the evening. Meanwhile, Farhana Islam was saying that she only signed the documents and was unaware of anything else. Enraged with his husband’s behaviour at one point, she herself requested the police to arrest her husband.

The foundation filed a case with Ramna police station over the incident. Police arrested Farhana and Mohiuddin around 8:00 pm.

Ziaul Malek of Kushtia was also made accused in the same case. He also came to the foundation for donations claiming he was injured during the mass uprising. Visiting the office, this correspondent found Ziaul claiming that he had to have two of his fingers amputated due to an injury to his foot sustained during the movement. Later, it was found that he got the injuries in a motorcycle accident. After that, he claimed that he was hit on his already injured leg during the student movement. However, as the foundation contacted, his family members revealed that his fingers were amputated after the accident long before the July uprising.

Visiting the foundation office in the capital’s Shahbagh on Tuesday, long queues of applicants were seen. There were heated arguments between the applicants and the officials over the delay in verification. At one point, a scuffle broke out between them.

Another person named Shafiqul Islam, who runs a tea stall in Keraniganj, was found to be a fraud during verification. At one point, he admitted that he sustained the injuries while trying to catch a coconut thrown from the top of the tree. No legal action was taken against him. He was released after signing a bond that he won’t engage in any kind of fraudulent activities in future.

Shahida Begum, 40, went to the foundation on Sunday. She was making quite a fuss demanding the money provided by the government. She was claiming that she was shot on both knees during the movement. However, at one point of verification, she admitted that she has never been shot in her life. He sustained the injury falling on the ground.

Shahida, however, claimed that she had truly participated in the movement. She showed a video clip of her standing in the crowd of protesters during the uprising. However, she could not prove that she sustained the injuries during the movement. She too was let go after signing a bond.

Nayan Sikder also went to the foundation for the donation claiming to sustain injuries during the July uprising. The photo he submitted as evidence of his admission to a hospital was edited with photoshop which was easily detected during the verification.

After being caught, Nayan confessed that he worked at a shop in Gazipur. He submitted the photo along with the forged documents to make it credible. He too had signed a bond before being released.

Another person named Sahil Khan was caught red handed 13 February. He too had appealed for the donation despite not being a July victim. He signed a bond after getting caught that he would accept any punitive measure taken by the foundation if he gets involved in similar activities in future.

In some cases, the fraud was discovered after the fraudsters had taken the money. For instance, a woman from Pabna named Chameli Begum took a donation of Tk 100,000 faking his brothers’ injury. The fraudulence was identified later. Chameli made a commitment in writing that she would return the money.

The foundation filed a case with Ramna police station on 13 February on the allegations of fraudulence accusing Masum Hossain Prakash Emon of Narayanganj and some four unidentified persons. According to the case statement, Masum used to make arrangements to include names of the people in the MIS who did not take part in the movement. Masum would charge 50 per cent of the amount that the fake victims get.

The July Shaheed Smrity Foundation filed another case against Junaid Ahmed of Rangamati and Abul Kalam of Bhola on 10 February.

Abul Kalam claimed that his son was injured during the uprising and received Tk 100,000 in donation. Later, the foundation learned that his son was not injured in the movement. Abul Kalam later admitted to the fraudulence and said he was helped by Junaid who took Tk 30,000 in exchange.

Those killed and injured in the July uprising have not yet received full assistance. Many families are in financial distress. The list of those killed and injured has not yet been finalised.

Meanwhile, Shakil Ahmed and a few others, who were injured taking part in the mass uprising, went to the foundation upon hearing the news of fraudsters trying to get the donation instead of actual victims.

Shakil told Prothom Alo, “Assistance for the actual victim is being delayed due to the fraudsters. The victims are getting frustrated and discontent over the matter.”

*This report appeared on the print and online versions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Ashish Basu