Casino connection leads to 7 cases against 2 AL leaders
Vice president of Gandaria thana Awami League, Enamul Huq, and his brother, joint general secretary of the thana unit, Rupon Bhuiyan, were running illegal casinos in Wanderers Club and other places around the capital city.
They would hide the millions of taka earned from these casinos, along with gold and firearms, in the houses of their close associates Abul Kalam and Harun Ar Rashid. This was revealed in the seven cases brought against them by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).
RAB-3 officers on Wednesday night and Thursday morning filed these cases at the Sutrapur, Gandaria and Wari police stations under the firearms, special powers and money laundering acts.
RAB raided Enamul’s six-storey house in Baniyanagar and four other houses on Tuesday afternoon, recovering Tk 50.5 million, gold ornaments worth Tk 40 million and six firearms.
With no more space in their safes, the two brothers also stashed their money and gold in the homes of their casino staff Abul Kalam and friend Harun Ar Rashid.
Partners of Dhaka Wanderers Club, Enamul and Rupon were running casinos. However, RAB was not able to arrest anyone in this connection till Thursday night.
RAB filed 4 cases with the Sutrapur police station, two under the money laundering act and two under the special powers act.
In the firearms case filed with the Wari police station, it was said that the two brothers were charged under the special powers act for possession of large amounts of gold, firearms and cash kept in the trusted associates Abul Kalam and Harun Ar Rashid.
Two policemen suspended
Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner M Shafiqul Islam said that two policemen had been suspended for assisting Nepalese nationals to flee during the crackdown on the casinos.
The two suspended policemen were constable Dipankar Chakma of the Ramna police station and DMP assistant sub-inspector Golam Hossain alias Mithu.
Four cases are lodged with the Sutrapur police station under the money laundering and special powers act, two with the Wari police station under the firearms act and one with the Gandaria police station under the money laundering act.
When CCTV camera recording taken on 18 September of a building in Segun Bagicha went viral, allegations arose of the police aiding gamblers to escape.
It was on that day that RAB raided Fakirapool’s Young Men’s Club, Wanderers Club and Muktijoddha Sangsad Krira Chakra and the casinos came to light. Nepalese nationals were hired to run these casinos controlled by Jubo League leaders.
CCTV coverage of Summit Lodge, where the Nepalese nationals would stay, first showed three people entering the building. One of them holding a walkie-talkie identified himself as a plainclothes policeman.
When the matter was revealed by the media, head of the counter terrorism and transnational crime unit Md Monirul Islam rejected the reports. Addressing a press briefing on Tuesday, he said, “There has been no proof so far to indicate that they were members of the police.”
On Thursday, however, the DMP commissioner told the media that two policemen had been suspended due to their suspicious behaviour recorded on the CCTV. He said that the two police personnel were accompanied by a member of an intelligence agency.
Bank accounts of Shamim’s nominees frozen
Bangladesh Bank has frozen the accounts of the nominee’s of Jubo League leader GK Shamim. The day after GK Shamim was arrested, these persons had tried to withdraw large sums of money from their accounts, but the central bank was informed and took immediate action.
The bank accounts frozen along with those of GK Shamim, were Delwar Hossain of Naogaon, Murad Hossain of Gopalganj, Zahidul Islam of Badda, Shahidul Islam of Jessore, Kamal Hossain of Bhola, Shamshad Hossain of Nilphamari and Aminul Islam of Bagerhat.
Police suspect that these nominees are are employees of Shamim’s firm.