Court Correspondent

A court has ordered the seizure of the home, land and 18 flats belonging to businessman Chowdhury Nafeez Sarafat and his family, who benefited from financial incentives under the ousted Awami League government.

Metropolitan Sessions Judge Zakir Hossain Ghalib passed the order on Tuesday after an application from the Anti-Corruption Commission, or ACC.

ACC Court Inspector Amir Hossain told bdnews24.com that among the assets of Nafeez's family that are to be seized is a 20-storey house in Gulshan in his name.

He also has one flat in Gulshan, four in the Dhaka Cantonment Bazar area, one in the Nikunja North residential area and 50 percent of a flat in the Bashundhara residential area. He has two plots in Nikunja, two 7,200 sq feet plots of land in Gazipur’s Kaliakoir, and one of 5,400 sq feet plot in the Purbachal New City project of RAJUK.

He also owns 1,800 sq feet of land in Nikunja, 8.25 decimals of agricultural land in Badda's Kathaldia, and 8.25 decimals of land in Gazipur Sadar.

Nafeez's wife Anjuman Ara Shahid owns a four-story house on 5,400 sq feet of land in the Bashundhara residential area, a flat in Panthapath, one on Gulshan Link Road, one in Mirpur DOHS, one in Shahjadpur, and 50 percent of an apartment in the Bashundhara Residential Area..
She also owns three 2,160 sq feet of land in Nikunja, 1,440 sq ft of agricultural land in Badda's Kathaldia, and 8.25 decimals of land in Gazipur Sadar.

The court has also ordered the seizure of three flats in Banani and four flats in Baridhara owned by the couple’s son Chowdhury Rahib Safwan Sarafat.

Nafeez, the former chairman of Padma Bank Limited (formerly Farmers Bank), is also involved in the ownership of Reis Asset Management PLC. He is also accused of a forcible bank takeover and embezzlement of money from the stock market.

ACC Deputy Director Masudur Rahman, who heads the investigation team probing the allegations against Nafeez, petitioned the court for these properties to be seized.

Mahmud Hossain Jahangir represented the ACC at the hearing heard on behalf of the ACC. Later, the court ordered the seizure of the assets belonging to the family.

The plea said that various allegations, including embezzling approximately Tk 8.87 billion received through bribery, corruption, fraud, and cheating of customers is being investigated against Nafeez and others.

Information about immovable property in the names of Nafeez, his wife, and his son have been found in different parts of the country and the family is absconding, it siad.

The petition states that after the ACC started its investigation, all the immovable properties of Nafiz Sarafat and his family members were transferred, relocated, mortgaged or taken away and that is why these properties need to be seized.

A decade and a half of Awami League rule came to an end on Aug 5, 2024 in the face of a student-led mass movement. That same month, the bank accounts of Nafeez and his wife were frozen.

On Aug 16, the ACC began investigating allegations of embezzlement of Tk 8 billion through bank takeovers and money laundering from the stock market against him.

Nafeez, who allegedly got away with irregularities and corruption in the financial sector during the Awami League's three terms, also had his BO account in the stock market frozen.

The chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Canadian University of Bangladesh, Nafeez expanded his business in various sectors including hotels and hospitality, power, mobile towers, and media in the past decade.

Farmers Bank was on the verge of closure due to irregularities and a loan scandal when the ownership and management changed in 2017. Former Awami League Presidium member Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir resigned as the chairman under pressure. Nafeez took over the following year.

After changes to the board of directors, Farmers Bank was renamed Padma Bank in January 2019.