GK Shamim, 7 others charged with money laundering 195 crore Tk
The Dhaka Special Judge Court-10 on Tuesday charged eight people, including controversial contractor SM Golam Kibria Shamim, popularly known as GK Shamim, with laundering Tk 195 crore.
Judge Mohammad Nazrul Islam of the court charged them and set November 19 for beginning their trial through examining prosecution witnesses in the court.
The seven other accused are Delwar Hossain, Murad Hossain, Md Zahidul Islam, Shahidul Islam, Jamal Hossain, Samsad Hossain and Aminul Islam, all associates of Shamim, said court officials.
In another money laundering case, expelled Juba League leader Ismail Hossain Chowdhury Samrat was shown arrested on Tuesday.
Dhaka metropolitan magistrate Md Sarafuzzaman Ansary granted the Criminal Investigation Department request to show the expelled Dhaka Metropolitan South City unit of Juba League president arrested in the case.
n GK Shamim’s case, all the accused are now in jail and heard the charges from the dock.
As the court asked whether they were guilty or not after reading out the charges against them, all the accused pleaded not guilty and sought justice.
GK Shamim, known as an influential contractor in the areas of Sabujbagh, Basabo and Motijheel of the capital, was arrested by the Rapid Action Battalion on September 20, 2019 at Niketan in Dhaka during raids against casino and other anti-social businesses.
RAB also arrested all his seven associates during the raids and seized bank fixed deposit receipts worth Tk 165 crore, Tk 1.8 crore in cash and a huge stash of foreign currencies.
A foreign-made pistol, seven shotguns and a large cache of bullets were also seized from Shamim’s Niketon office of GKB & Company Pvt Limited.
The elite force filed three cases against Shamim and his associates with the Gulshan police station on September 21, 2019 — one under the Narcotics Control Act, one under the Money Laundering Prevention Act and the other under the Arms Act.
Criminal Investigation Department additional superintendent (economic crime squad) Abu Sayeed on August 4 submitted charge sheet before the court against the eight in the case lodged by RAB-1 Nayek Subedar Mizanur Rahman under the Money Laundering Prevention Act.
Twenty-six people were named in the charge sheet as prosecution witnesses.
The case under the Arms Act against the eight is now under trial and the case under the Narcotics Control Act is in the pre-trial stage.
On Tuesday, in the presence of Samrat, the court held the hearing and granted the arrest plea of the CID.
The CID filed the case with the Ramna police on September 13, on the charge of laundering Tk 195 crore to Singapore and Malaysia with the help of his aide Enamul.
According to the court’s document, Samrat acquired the wealth by illegal means.
The CID also mentioned that they completed a review on Samart’s foreign travel, according to which Samrat travelled to Malaysia three times, went to Dubai twice and Hong Kong once between December 2011 and August 2019 while his associate Arman travelled to Singapore 25 times in the same period.
On October 6, 2019, RAB JL leader Samrat and Arman, former vice-president of the same unit, from Cumilla after raiding a house near the Indian border.
Meanwhile, the investigation of a case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission is underway against Samrat.
On November 12, 2019, the commission filed the case against him on the charge of accumulating illegal wealth worth Tk 2.94 crore.
On September 18, 2019, the law enforcement agencies launched drives against illegal casinos and bars in the capital and detained several leaders of Juba League, among others, for their involvement in the casinos and other illegal businesses.
After the law enforcement agencies conducted drives at different sporting clubs at Motijheel and unearthed a huge number of casino equipment, Samrat’s name came into discussion for his alleged involvement in the casinos in September last year.
New Age
