News Desk :
Laxmipur lawmaker Kazi Shahid Islam alias Papul has lost his seat in parliament in light of his conviction for money laundering and human trafficking in Kuwait, reports bdnews24.com.
Parliament Secretary Zafar Ahmed Khan said a gazette has been issued to declare his vacant, effective from the day the verdict was announced.
The gazette stated that Shahid Islam had been stripped of his parliamentary seat in line with Article 66 of the Constitution. Article 66 provides that a person shall be disqualified for election as, or for being, a member of parliament who has been, on conviction for a criminal offence involving moral turpitude, sentenced to imprisonment for a term of not less than two years, unless a period of five years has elapsed since his release.
Shahid, the MP of Lakshmipur-2 seat, was arrested in Kuwait on Jun 6 last year.
Besides human trafficking and money laundering, the Kuwaiti prosecutors charged him with torturing employees of his company, based on the complaints from five Bangladeshi nationals subjected to trafficking. The incident stirred a political furore in Kuwait.
On January 28 last, a Kuwait court sentenced Papul to four years’ imprisonment in a case filed on charges of human trafficking and money laundering.
The court, headed by Counsellor Abdullah Al-Osman, handed also fined him Tk 53 crore.
Kuwait’s Criminal Investigation Department of police arrested Papul from Kuwait City residence on June 6 last.
Kuwaiti authorities froze his bank accounts and companies to ensure that the money is not moved around beyond the jurisdiction of Kuwaiti courts.
The MP is the managing director and CEO of Marafie Kuwaitia Group, a security and labour contracting company. In addition, he has three other companies in Kuwait, all of which are cleaning and contracting companies.
He has an annual net profit of around two million Kuwaiti dinars after all the bribes and money he spent on gifts in exchange for facilitating transactions and paperwork to bring in workers from Bangladesh.
There are 350,000 Bangladeshis residing in Kuwait, according to the Embassy of Bangladesh.
On November 11, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed a case against Papul, his wife Salina Islam, MP, their daughter Wafa and Papul’s sister-in-law Jesmin Akter Prodhan on charge of laundering around Tk 148 crore.
On December 27 last, Salina and Wafa were granted bail by Dhaka court after they surrendered to it in compliance with a High Court order.
Salina and Jesmin were interrogated by the ACC on July 22 last as part of investigation against the Bangladeshi MP who was arrested in Kuwait over human trafficking, money laundering, visa trading and bribery charges.
