RAB raided two flats on Sunday belonging to Jubo Mohila League leader Shamima Nur Papiya and her husband Mofizur Rahman Sumon after arresting them from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Saturday.
The two were held when they were trying to flee the country. Searching the two flats on Indira Road in the city’s Farmgate area and also a presidential suite at a Five-Star hotel, RAB recovered around Tk 58 lakh in cash.
Apart from the lavish flats in Dhaka, Papiya, 28, and Sumon, 38, a former Chhatra League leader, possess two more flats and two plots worth around Tk two crore in Narsingdi and several luxurious cars, RAB said at a press briefing on Sunday. RAB seized counterfeit notes, foreign currencies and around Tk 2.5 lakh from their possession.
We have been seeing for sometime the preponderance of such acts among certain activists of the ruling party. Due to their connections with certain high ups of the party they remain beyond the reach of the law for sometime — in the cases of GK Shamim and Casino King Samrat for a considerable period of time. But why is this case? Why does it take the security forces like RAB so much time to arrest these social delinquents? Definitely we can say that the police know about most illegal activities that going on in Dhaka.
So how is it possible that this woman takes up a presidential suite in a posh hotel and fills it up with women whom she threatened to perform sexual services to her clients in a country where all couples are supposed to show ID cards before renting a single hotel room.
Definitely money power talks — otherwise these hotels would not have tolerated her behaviour for so long. We can only guess how many police officials she had to bribe to continue her activities for so long–but the list is sure to be long.
The bottom line remains that certain so-called political activists are using their positions to carry out all sorts of illegal activities from running gambling rackets to running prostitution and extortion rings right under the noses of the police and other security forces.
We will never know fully whether it was simply the power of money or their connections — or more realistically, both, which were used to hide their activities for so long.
What the government needs to do is — uncover their clients’ identities and those who patronised them due to money or other illicit services. We have a bad habit of only touching the tip of the iceberg in most criminal matters related to criminals who are in politics.
The investigating teams should have the courage to arrest and stop these criminals. It is no credit for police or intelligence agencies that for their political connections these criminals could continue their high profile crime in high places in the capital city.
We ask everyone to consider how this role is earning criminalised image for the whole nation. High level criminals are protected at high levels.
