Financial fraud proven

Rezaul Karim expelled from Jamaat

PROBE's investigations lead to the expulsion of corrupt Jamaat leader from the party

A PROBE report

Rezaul Karim, influential leader of the Comilla unit of Jamaat-e-Islami, has finally been expelled from the party on charges of financial misappropriation and fraud. Central leader and Assistant Secretary General of Jamaat, Qader Mollah, tells PROBE that Rezaul Karim's position as rokon and general membership has been cancelled. He is now no longer with Jamaat. Jamaat's central executive committee on June 7 took the decision to expel Rezaul Karim from the party.

In the May 16 issue of PROBE this year [Volume 6 Issue 47], a detailed report was published, entitled "Reporter Selim Zahid loses job for reporting on corruption of Jamaat leader". Prior to this, many victims of Rezaul Karim's corrupt ways submitted written complaints to Jamaat's central sura, but to no avail. The party only took notice after the PROBE report was published. Various intelligence agencies also began inquiring into the matter. So despite lobbying with various quarters, Rezaul Karim could not save himself.

The PROBE report stated that Rezaul Karim, former candidate for the Comilla-10 seat, over the past few years made crores of taka by taking money from people in the pretext of sending them abroad, promising them partnership in businesses and investment. When the creditors demanded their money back, he would threaten them, using one of his relatives in the administration.

Rezaul Karim is the Managing Director of the Kanon Lake Resort at Suagazi along the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. It was learnt that Rezaul Karim took 14 lac taka from a certain Hafez Siddiqur Rahman on June 30, 2003, as 'investment' in the resort. An agreement was signed between the two. Along with the capital investment and profit, the amount now stands at 22 lacs. Siddiqur Rahman has requested for his money repeatedly, but has not got it back as yet.

Rezaul Karim took three lac taka worth of fish feed from the non-resident Shahed Ali and his brother Zahed Ali of Laksham. Four years ago he took a loan of five lac taka from Abdul Ghani of the same thana. He also took two lac from Hasan Ali, one lac from Abdul Jalil and eight lac from Abdul Wahab. He has been avoiding repayment of these debts over the past three or four years.

Rezaul Karim's last nefarious scheme was at the Uttara branch of Shahjalal Bank in the city. On September 27, 2007, he applied for a five crore taka loan from this bank in the name of Akib Fish Hatchery. He used the fixed deposit of a friend at Uttara Bank in Eastern Plaza as collateral. But when the Manager of Shahjalal Bank's Uttara branch made inquiries, he discovered that there was no such bank account at the Eastern Plaza branch of Uttara Bank. It was found out that Rezaul Karim had made a false pad of Uttara Bank and forged the bank manager's seal and signature. Despite such a big fraud, the bank took no action against him.

As Rezaul Karim was an influential leader of the district unit of Jamaat in Comilla and had the support of Jamaat's district Amir, his victims received no response to their complaints. Rezaul Karim used Jamaat as a tool in his criminal schemes.

Jugantor's senior reporter Selim Zahid was the latest victim of Rezaul Karim's vengeance. On April 9 this year, an investigative report of Selim Zahid on Rezaul Karim appeared in the newspaper. This enraged Rezaul and he used influential quarters to put pressure on Jugantor to dismiss Selim Zahid. Unfortunately for Selim, in spite of having all evidence to back his report, the Jugantor management sided with Rezaul Karim. They unjustly sacked Selim Zahid. He has been jobless since then.