Samrat, Arman held, jailed for 6 months

The Rapid Action Battalion said that they arrested on Sunday pro-Awami League youth organisation Jubo League’s Dhaka south city unit president Ismail Chowdhury Samrat along with his associate Armanul Haque Arman from Chuddagram of Cumilla.

Samrat was sentenced by a RAB executive magistrate to imprisonment for six months for violating the wildlife protection law and Arman for the same period for violating the anti-narcotic law.

A RAB-1 team led by commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Sarwar Bin Kashem conducted a five-hour raid at the office of Samrat in capital’s Kakrail and seized a pistol with five bullets, two sticks and two electric-shocking machines, some 1,160 pieces of Yaba tablets, 19 bottles of foreign liquor and two skins of kangaroos. 

RAB’s executive magistrate Sarwar Alam later at a press conference said that Samrat was jailed for six months for violating the Wildlife (Conservation and Protection) Act by storing kangaroo skins and more cases would be filed with the Ramna police station for his violation of the anti-narcotics act, arms act and then anti-money laundering case if there was any evidence.

Sarwar Alam said that Samrat’s associate Arman was also jailed for six months in Cumilla after he was found drunk with foreign liquor and was sent to jail there.

RAB spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Sarwar Bin Kashem said that they arrested Samrat and Arman in Chauddagram upazila of Cumilla at about 5:00am on Sunday and later brought Samrat to Dhaka in connection with the raid on his office building.

Sarwar said that they had  been looking for Samrat after his name appeared in different media following their raids on illegal ‘casinos’ at sporting clubs in the capital from September 18.

Asked where the JL leader had been since the RAB launched the anti-‘casino’ operation, the RAB spokesperson said that they would investigate it and later could disclose his whereabouts during the time.

Ismail Hossain Samrat, right, and his associate Enamul Haque Arman. Photo collected from Facebook.

‘Samrat tried to flee the country through the Cumilla border,’ RAB director general Benazir Ahmed said, adding that he took shelter at a house of Bangladesh Jammat e Islami leader in Chauddagram before making the move to escape.

With multiple vehicles, the RAB escorted the hand-cuffed Samrat in a bullet-proof vehicle to the Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj at about 7:15pm amid protest by his supporters in front of the party office.

Police officials on duty were seen clearing the protesters from the road.

While being led to the jail, Samrat was asked where he had been before he was arrested but he just gave a sad look and kept silent.

The Daily Kaler Kantha on September 28 reported that Samrat was arrested by an intelligence agency from a house in capital’s Banani and none of the relevant authorities so far contradicted the report.

Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan then had said, ‘You would see whenever he would be arrested.’

His second wife Sharmin Chowdhury admitted Samrat’s involvement in running ‘casinos’ in the capital but said that the money coming from them were given to the party fund.

‘He was such a popular leader!’ she told reporters. He had no other addiction than to gambling.  

The RAB later on the day also conducted raids on the houses of Samrat and Arman in the capital.

Arman was flown to the Feni district jail, RAB officials said.

Samrat’s wife Sharmin Chowdhury said that Samrat used to live in his party office at Kakrail and she used to visit him there every month.

His organisation expelled him on Sunday for breaching party discipline and indulging in unethical practices, according to Iqbal Mahmood Bablu, the publication secretary of the central unit of the Juba League.

Media reports, quoting unnamed RAB sources, of his involvement in overseeing illicit gambling operations came after the RAB suddenly started raiding sporting clubs where casino-like gambling operations had been going on for a long time.

The RAB on September 18 arrested Samrat’s associate Khalid Mahmud Bhuiyan, organising secretary of Juba League’s Dhaka south unit, and contined arresting many other leaders of pro-AL bodies, including SM Golam Kibria Shamim, and businessmen.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net