Staff Reporter:
A Dhaka court on Wednesday sentenced former Dhaka South Jubo League president Ismail Hossain Chowdhury Samrat, an alleged kingpin of the illegal casino business in Dhaka, to 20 years in jail in two separate cases.
Judge of Dhaka Special Judge court-6, Md Zakaria Hossain sentenced 10 years jail to the former Jubo League leader in connection with money laundering case and fined Tk 10 lakh, in default to suffer six months more in rigorous imprisonment.
The same court also sentenced ten years in jail in a case of amassing wealth beyond known income sources and fined Tk ten lakh in the case.
The court also asked to confiscate the property of the ex-Jubo League leader.
On July 17, last year, the court framed charges against Samrat in two cases and issued a warrant for his arrest.
Samrat came under the spotlight after an anti-casino drive led by the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) ex-posed illegal gambling operations in Dhaka’s Motijheel on September 18, 2019.
Following the operation, he went into hiding.
On October 7, 2019, Rab arrested Samrat and his close aide Enamul Haque Arman from Cumilla’s Chauddagram.
Later that day, Rab conducted a five-hour search at his Kakrail office in the capital.
During the raid, the elite force said they recovered a foreign pistol with bullets, 1,160 yaba pills, 19 bot-tles of foreign liquor, two kangaroo hides and electric devices allegedly used for torture.
Due to possession of the unauthorized wildlife items, a mobile court sentenced Samrat to six months in jail under the Wildlife Conservation Act.
Later, Rab-1 filed separate cases with Ramna Police Station under the Arms Act and the Narcotics Con-trol Act.
After investigation, police submitted the charges to court on November 6 next year.
The tribunal recorded testimonies of 10 witnesses before delivering the verdict on Tuesday.
He walked out of jail on bail in August,2022 and went into hiding after August 5,2024.
In November 2019, ACC filed a case against Samrat for amassing wealth of Tk 2.94 crore beyond known sources.
A year later in November 2020, ACC submitted chargesheet against Samrat on charge of accumulating wealth of Tk 222.88 crore beyond his known sources of income.
