Dhaka: A senior leader of Bangladesh’s ruling party Ismail Hossain Samrat and his associate Enamul Hoque Arman was arrested Sunday for allegedly running illegal casinos here, amid allegations of corruption against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led government.
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested Jubo League Dhaka South unit’s president Ismail Hossain Samrat, ‘BD News’ reported. Jubo League is the youth wing of the ruling Bangladesh Awami League.
Samrat had gone into hiding after being suspected of running illegal casinos.Ppolice issued a travel ban against him September 24.
The two accused were apprehended in Cumilla’s Chauddagram Upazila in the early hours of Sunday, Home Minister Assaduzzaman Khan said.
Samrat went underground once information linking leaders of the Awami League’s youth front with the illegal gambling business surfaced. Soon after his arrest, the youth wing of the ruling party expelled him for anti-social activities and breaching party discipline.
Gambling is illegal in the conservative Muslim majority Bangladesh.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last month launched an anti-graft drive. Samrat is the most senior politician to be caught in the drive.
In the wake of the arrest of some ruling party leaders in drives against illegal casinos, opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir last month demanded the resignation of the government for widespread corruption and plundering.
PTI