Ismail Hossain Chowdhury Samrat turned into a 'monster' by his activities of collecting extortion, tender manipulation and casino business. Samrat was the Jubo League president of Dhaka South city unit and is known by the epithet 'Casino Samrat.'
Samrat was accused of demanding millions of taka from Anjuman Mofidul Islam, a charity, specialising in helping the poor deal with interment of dead bodies where Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana are also patrons.
Prime Minister and AL President Sheikh Hasina had ordered the Jubo League leader to stop collecting extortion money but he didn't pay heed to her warning, according to AL sources.
Hours after his arrest Samrat on Sunday he was expelled from the party for his anti-social activities and breaching party discipline. Samrat's activities
came under the scanner after he demanded extortion money from Anjuman Mofidul Islam. Samrat has different fronts for collecting money.
Khalid Mahmud Bhuiyan another Jubo League central committee leader and Golam Kibria Shamim alias GK Shamim controlled the tender business in several government organization including the PWD (Public Works Department).
Samrat also has several close aides who were involved in the collection of extortion money regularly from the commercial hub, Motijheel, including from the footpath vendors. Every Ward of Dhaka (south) city had to pay share of their extortion money to Jubo League leader Samrat, according to sources. Several of Samrat's close aides are under surveillance of the intelligence agency, sources added.
In the last ten years, he was involved in tender manipulation, occupation of land and homes and extortion in Dhaka South.
Hailing from Feni, Samrat's father served in a clerical post in Rajdhani Unnayan Katripakkha (RAJUK) and Samrat grew up in Dhaka by courtesy of his father's job. Initially, he lived at the government quarters in Kakrail and got involved in politics in 1990.
In the 1991-96 period, he left Awami League's student wing Chhatra League and joined Jubo League and was elected organizational secretary of Dhaka city south youth front of the ruling Awami League. In 2012, he became the president of Jubo League Dhaka South and began his casino trade.
He used to supply 'activists' to political rallies and received accolades for presenting theme based rallies which attracted the attention of party high ups.
Samrat is also a gambler and used to spend ten days in Singapore every month for gambling. Since he is a known first rate gambler, Changi Airport used to offer him special facilities and took him to the Marina Bay casino directly from the airport in a limousine.
He was accompanied in his trips by Jubo League leader Armanul Huq Arman, his elder brother Badal and others.
According to intelligence agency Samrat usually visited Singapore every month for gambling and he lost huge amount of money in the Singapore casinos. Samrat's close aides send huge amount of money to him in Singapore by Hundi.
A central Jubo League leader has shed light on Samrat's rise. Samrat, the second among three siblings, grew up in the neighbourhoods of Motijheel and Ramna.
He became the joint secretary of Ward No 53 of Jubo League in 1993. Awami League Presidium member Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim was the chairman of Jubo League at the time.
But Samrat grew reckless once he got the post of Ward Jubo League joint secretary. He was even accused of beating up his own Ward President Lutfor Rahman.
The organisation decided to expel Samrat and three others over the incident but it was never implemented. Meanwhile, Samrat started frequenting the sporting clubs in Motijheel.
"Samrat began to visit the central office more often after Jahangir Kabir Nanak and Mirza Azam were put in charge of Jubo League in its 2003 council," said the Jubo League leader, who did not want to be named.
It was then that Mohiuddin Mohi and Nurunnabi Chowdhury Shaon became the president and general secretary of Dhaka South Jubo League.
After a clash with Mohi, Shaon made Samrat the organising secretary to gain a foothold in the unit.
As a loyal aide to Shaon, Samrat used to control the tenders floated by Dhaka City Corporation after the Awami League-led grand alliance came to power in 2009.
He recently ventured into Dhaka's movie industry with the first film under the banner of his production house 'Desh Bangla Multimedia' releasing last Eid. Both Samrat and Arman refer to each other as 'best friends' on their Facebook accounts.
Samrat used to control tenders in government offices, including Matsya Bhaban, Water Development Board and Power Development Board under the jurisdiction of Dhaka North with Arman at his side, according to Jubo League leaders.
His three Bangladeshi wives live with their children in the capital's Shanti Nagar and Mohakhali DOHS, Jubo League sources said. During the ongoing anti casino drives, Samrat's name came up and he was arrested on October 6 morning from Choddogram in Cumilla. Samrat had been under surveillance for some time and is known to have even tried to leave the country.
