Police SI's millionaire wife sent to jail
She owns a flat and plot of land in Chattogram city. She also has land in Sitakunda and owns a car. She has earned billions of taka. The man behind Golzar Begum’s success is her police officer husband, Md Nawab Ali. He is a sub-inspector (SI) of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) in Dhaka.
Nawab Ali owns flats and land in his own name too. According to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the couple has accumulated assets Tk 13.8 million (Tk 1 crore and 38 lakh) beyond their known sources of income.
ACC sources said Nawab Ali joined the police as a constable in 1992. He kept the money he acquired through corrupt means, in his wife's name. According to the documents, his wife has earned Tk 11 million (Tk1 crore and 10 lakh) from fish farming. But in reality, she does not own any fish farm. However, in their report the officials mentions she owns a fish firm.
ACC has submitted a charge sheet in court against SI Nawab Ali, his wife Golzar Begum, Bahar Uddin Chowdhury, assistant tax commissioner (retired) of Tax Zone-1, Chattogram, and tax inspector Dipankar Ghosh.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, SI Md Nawab Ali claimed that the ACC has filed a false case only to harass him. He said had accumulated all this property from the earnings of his wife’s fish farm.
His wife Golzar Begum said, “We are poor. Despite that, the ACC has lodged a case against us.”
According to ACC’s investigations, Nawab Ali is from Kekania village of Gopalganj sadar upazila. In 2013, he built a house on 6.90 decimal lands in his own name. His wife owns 354 decimals of lands in Kalimpur of Chattogram’s Sitakunda upazila, a 1,100 sq ft flat with parking space in Lalkhan Bazar area of Chattogram and a four decimal plot of land in the same area. Golzar also owns a microbus.
In the property assessment submitted to ACC, Golzar claimed that she started fish farming by leasing a wetland (jalmahal) in Maddarhat of Pashchim Icchakhali from seven people including Hares Ahmed, Aminul Haque, Jahangir Alam, and Shawkat Akbar. However, ACC’s investigation revealed that all of these persons had died 20 years ago. A resident of that area, Babul Chowdhury, said that the land which is shown as the wetland is agricultural land. There was never any fish farm on that land.
The investigation officer of the case and deputy director of ACC’s headquarters, Ali Akbar, told Prothom Alo that police officer Nawab Ali has bought land, flats and cars in his and his wife’s name with the money he gained by illegal means. To make these assets valid, he showed his wife as a fish farmer. However, there is no such fish farm.
ACC lawyer Mahmudul Haque told Prothom Alo that the court has issued an arrest warrant against the four accused persons after accepting the charge sheet submitted. The court has fixed 6 April as the day of next hearing.
Meanwhile, Nawab Ali’s wife Golzar Begum has been sent to prison by the court on Tuesday around 11 am. She surrendered before the court of Chattogram metropolitan session judge Sheikh Ashfakur Rahman and appealed for bail. The court stayed her appeal and sent her to jail.