Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim was the health and family welfare minister during his cousin fascist Sheikh Hasina’s tenure as prime minister from 1996 to 2001. Although Awami League returned to the power in 2008, he didn’t get a ministry. But he was the president of the parliamentary standing committee in four consecutive parliaments.
He used his identity as Sheikh Mujibur rahman’s nephew to proliferate his influence everywhere.
He was controlling a significant number of the development work of various ministries including health, local government, and road transport.
Especially in the greater Faridpur, Khulna, Rajshahi and Mymensingh regions, he personally distributed all the development work among contractors. In return, he used to take a large amount of commission from the contractors. Recently, the evidences of his ill-doings were found in the debris of his house.
On the night of February 5, an agitating people vandalized and set fire to his house in Banani, Dhaka. The next day, various tools and documents were seen scattered inside and around the house. A document obtained by Bangladesh Pratidin shows an account of contracting work worth about Tk 1,300 crore. The handwritten 24-page document also mentions who will be given which work and how much commission will be received from it.
Along with this, several bank account numbers of Sheikh Selim and his family are written on a National Parliament pad. However, the amount of transactions or deposits in these accounts is not mentioned. Another page of the pad contains passport information of some family members.
The documents recovered from Banani's house contain detailed information about the tenders for 11 packages in Gopalganj, three in Khulna, two in Rajshahi and one in each districts including Chuadanga, Habiganj, Tangail, Mymensingh, Faridpur, Natore.
The selected contractors, completion time and commission rates are mentioned on the pages of the paper through various symbols. A review of the documents obtained shows that Sheikh Selim had control over all types of contracting work, from road and highway work to the construction or renovation of stadiums, development of medical colleges and hospitals.
The document has evidence of dividing 11 development works in Gopalganj into 11 packages and assigning contractors. These packages include boundary wall, electricity sub-station, gallery shed, stadium renovation and development, hostel cum office building, gymnasium in the women's sports complex, installation of gallery chairs in the stadium and sports complex, and various construction works.
The document contains tender information, names of various contractor organizations and the amount of money placed next to them, tick marks next to the name of specific contractor organizations, names of different people have been written in specific places in each package and the amount of money has been placed next to them. In some packages, the names of different people have been written as references.
The documents received contain information about the construction of a swimming pool in the Gopalganj-1 package. There is a mention of 12 crore 23 lakh 99 thousand taka in the name of BFL/HLC-J/V; 11 crore 60 lakh 39 thousand in the name of QH Masud & Co.; 10 crore 22 lakh 56 thousand in the name of Messrs Anam Traders; 9 crore 34 lakh 59 thousand in the name of A, S-A Atco-J/VNext to the names of Sanu, Enam and Yusuf, taka eight lakh was mentioned in written.
In Gopalganj Package-2, for the construction of the Pavilion Building Gallery, there is a mention of 11 crore 67 lakh 63 thousand next to Mercantile Corporation, 13 crore 89 lakh 20 thousand in the name of BFL-ALCL J/V, 13 crore 46 lakh 78 thousand in the name of QH Masud & Co., and 11 crore 70 lakh 42 thousand in the name of Messrs Anam Traders. The name Mahbub is mentioned next to the name of Mercantile. Below, 5 lakh is written next to the names of Panna-Shibu.
Besides Gopalganj, Sheikh Selim’s document also contains evidence of the allocation of various contractor jobs in Chuadanga, Khulna, Habiganj, Tangail, Faridpur, Rajshahi, Mymensingh and Natore.
The document, handwritten by Sheikh Selim, contains a list of 13 contractors for the construction of the Faridpur District Stadium. The document contains contractor information for the construction of the Women's Sports Complex in Rajshahi. There are a total of 20 names of companies.
In another package, information on financial proposals from 20 companies for the construction of the swimming pool of this complex has also been found.
According to government rules, the details of any bid are kept secret. No one other than the officials involved in the project is supposed to know this.
But Sheikh Selim's documents contain detailed financial proposals of the contractors who submitted bids for each development work. This suggests that Sheikh Selim would get detailed information about any bid. Later, he would influence the concerned parties to award the work to his preferred company. It is said that in return, he would take a commission of 10 to 15 percent.
Translated by AM
