Staff Reporter :
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has sent letters to Kazi Shahid Islam Paplu MP, his wife, daughter and sister-in-law asking them to submit their personal documents.
ACC’s deputy director Salahuddin sent the letters to Kazi Shahid Islam Paplu MP, his wife Selina Islam MP of the reserved seat for women in parliament, daughter Wafa Islam and Selina’s sister asking them to submit their personal documents including national identity cards, passports, TIN certificates, and copies of income tax returns.
Kazi Shahid Islam Paplu MP of Lakshmipur-2 constituency, is now in a Kuwait jail following his arrest over human trafficking and money laundering charges.
ACC director (Public Relations) Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya said on Wednesday that the ACC’s investigation officer concerned sent letters to Paplu and his family members asking them to submit their documents.
Talking to the ACC officials, it was learnt that various information related to the movable and immovable property of Paplu, his wife, daughter and sister-in-law was sought in the letters. At the same time, they were asked to provide the details of the full permanent, temporary and changed addresses.
Sources at the ACC said the letters were sent to Paplu’s Gulshan residential and Lakshmipur-2 home addresses. They were also asked to submit their documents by the next 15 working days.
It was learnt that Paplu’s wife received the ACC’s letters.
Earlier, five Bangladeshi expatriates in Kuwait testified against Shahid Islam Paplu before a Kuwait court on Sunday.
In their deposition, they alleged that each of them paid up to 3,000 dinars to Shahid Islam Paplu to go to Kuwait and had also been paying annual sums for renewing their residency visas.
On June 7, the Criminal Investigation Department in Kuwait arrested Paplu on the charges of human trafficking and money laundering.
The judge of Mushrif magistrate court denied MP Papul’s bail plea and sent him to jail on Sunday.
On Monday, he was placed on remand at the order of Kuwait’s public prosecutor following a plea by the Kuwait’s CID.
Other complaints submitted against the Bangladeshi MP, are that he provided five luxury cars as bribes to government officials in Kuwait, so that he could obtain manpower contracts for the company he runs there.
Kuwaiti media have also accused him of trading visas and siphoning off money to the US for laundering.
According to Al Qabas newspaper, the suspect is a member of a three-man racket whose other members include a Bangladeshi MP, ‘whose wife is also an MP from the seats reserved for women.’
It added that the trio occupied sensitive positions in three major companies that brought over 20,000 Bangladeshi workers into the country in exchange for large sums of money believed to be in excess of 50 million dinars ($163 million).
The MP reportedly channelled the money to the US to set up a company in partnership with an American national, according to the report.
With permanent resident status in Kuwait, Kazi Shahid Islam Papul runs the Marafie Kuwaitia Group as managing director and CEO.
The businesses of the company with presence in Kuwait, Oman and Jordan range from waste management, cleaning and janitorial services to security solutions to heavy equipment rental to engineering.
People from 29 countries work at the Kuwaiti company of Papul.
