Staff Reporter :
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in a raid seized Tk 26.55 crore in cash and fixed deposit receipt (FDR) worth Tk 5.15 crore from another house of two expelled Awami League (AL) leaders Enamul Haque, and his brother Rupon Bhuiyan in Dhaka early Tuesday.
The elite force members also seized around one kg gold ornaments, 9,300 US dollar, 174 Malaysian ringgit, 5,350 Indian rupee, 1,195 Chinese yen, 11,560 Thai baht and 100 UAE dirhams and casino chips during their drive at Lalmohon Saha Street in the city’s Wari area.
Enamul, former Vice-President of Gendaria Awami League, and his brother Rupon, Joint Secretary of the same unit, were arrested by the law enforcers for running casino business illegally from Dhaka’s Keraniganj on January 13.
Earlier, Wanderers Club Director Enamul and club’s shareholder Rupon went into hiding following the RAB’s first day crackdown against illegal casino on September 18.
Tipped off, the RAB team, led by Executive Magistrate Sarwoer Alam, conducted the raid at their home at Lalmohon Saha Street in Wari around 12:30am, Lt Col Rakibul Hasan, Commanding Officer (CO) of RAB-3, told the reporters at a press briefing at Dholaipar near the building in the afternoon.
During the drive, the team recovered the cash and FDRs, a kilogram of gold and some casino chips from five steel safes in the ground floor of the six-story building named ‘Mamataz Vila’ on the road, said the RAB official.
“The three-room flat is a mere 400 square feet, while entrance into the flat is a very narrow corridor. The elite force members managed to enter the flat after breaking the padlocked door,” the RAB official said.
The RAB-3 CO said that they did not find anyone in the house during the drive.
In September last year, RAB filed seven cases against the siblings, a day after seizing huge amount of money and gold, alongside firearms, from their houses during a raid in Old Dhaka, he said.
“No one lives on the first floor of the five-storey building. Everything there seemed to have been left in a secured state. The residential building is among the two dozen homes of Enu and Rupon,” said RAB-3 Additional Superintendent of Police ABM Faizul Islam.
The RAB also confiscated numerous casino equipment bearing the seal of Wanderers Club, said the RAB official.
The siblings have 22 houses, mostly in old part of the city, 91 bank accounts where they have Tk 190 million and five cars, said Imtiaz Ahmed, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Police.
The CID is investigating four of these cases, involving charges of conducting illicit casino and gambling activities and money laundering, he said.
