Special Correspondent

Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, the former state minister of shipping has gained huge wealth and most of the assets have been brought in the name of relatives, APS and business partners.

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) intelligence unit and Dinajpur district office have received information about his large wealth anonymously.

According to sources, he has built a wealth of thousands of crores of rupees in Dinajpur district and various areas of the capital. Under the influence of power, he earned this money in the name of recruitment, tendering and giving party posts.

Besides , he built auto rice mills one after another with low interest agricultural loans from various banks in the name of his relatives. Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury has a huge investment behind Johura Autorice Mill. He bought several houses in London with the money smuggled in his daughter's name. There are 13 flats and a few plots of 5 percent in the capital. In his own district Dinajpur, there is illegal sand trade worth hundreds of crores of rupees.

ACC Deputy Director (Public Relations) Md. Aktarul Islam said that investigation into the allegations of acquiring illegal assets of the state minister is ongoing.

According to preliminary investigation, the ACC found that the state minister had smuggled thousands of rupees to London through an agent banking branch owned by Assistant Private Secretary (APS) Bashar. Ashraf Ali Tuhin, general secretary of Upazila Jubo League, controlled the drug smuggling trade of phensidyl and tapentadol in the border area of Bochaganj upazila under the umbrella of the state minister.

However, after taking charge of the State Minister in 2018, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) head office was under control through APS. BIWTA with its own contractors and private cadre forces entered the building and went to the rooms of the Chief Engineers and Executive Engineers in charge of various departments and exerted pressure in various ways to give work through APS. BIWTA would not allow unwanted contractor to enter the building. The State Minister's men had to pay commission for any work above Tk 20 lakh.

If the commission was not given, the work would not have been available. The husband of the sister-in-law of the state minister's cousin was the big helper of APS in these works. Arshad. These two together controlled everything in the ministry. The state minister used to take the percentage of work through them. Arshad and Bashar used to decide who could be given the job. The two used to appoint people from their syndicate to the posts of officers and employees of various departments starting from BIWTA, BIWTC, Chittagong Port, Payra Port. Among them, Arshad was known to everyone as the cashier of the Minister of Naval Affairs. It is alleged that this Arshad has smuggled thousands of crores of rupees out of the country.
Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury went into hiding along with other members of the cabinet after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in a mass coup on August 5. His followers also went into hiding with him.

A few local leaders of Awami League of Pirganj upazila of Thakurgaon said that after August 5, they reached Bairchuna Union of the upazila in the body's car. After that, he fled to India through the Bhavanipur border.

According to ACC sources, the state minister bought 300 bighas of land anonymously in Tena village in Dinajpur's Bochaganj upazila through APS Bashar. Apart from this, he has built a farm with a pond on 150 bighas at a place called Maslabati next to Kalupir market. Land, shops and godowns worth several crores in Kalupi market. Ambagan on 90 bigha land in Syedpur Union No. 5 of neighboring upazila Pirganj, 58 percent of land worth several crores of rupees in Pirganj upazila, 1 thousand 741 percent of land worth several crores of rupees in Setabganj Bazar of Bochaganj, hundreds including 386 percent of land next to the land port through Biral Upazila Awami League general secretary Ramakanta. There is a sand trade worth crores of rupees. There are 5 plots in Dinajpur city. Ramakanta was in control of the state minister's illegal extraction of sand from Punarbhava river in the district. Apart from this, Abdul Hannan, the owner of Johura Autorice Mill, has bought hundreds of bighas of land in different villages of the upazila in the name of several managers. Abdul Hannan took a loan of hundreds of crores of rupees under the influence of Khalid Mahmud by showing the price of that land several times higher than the mortgage in various banks.

Apart from this, there are 13 flats in Dhaka's Lalmatia, Adabar, Shekhartek, Mohammadia Housing Society, Babar Road and Humayun Road and a few plots of 5 percent each in Bachila and Dhaka Udyan.

Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) of Bangladesh Bank summoned the bank accounts of former State Minister of Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, his wife, children and their related organizations on September 2.