If the ongoing anti-graft drive of the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which is being widely appreciated by the common people, halt in the middle, for any unknown reason, it would bring about a further challenge for the government. And there is a chance that people would lose confidence over the government action. Although the casino dons have been arrested, their promoters still have not been brought to book. It has already created wide confusion among countrymen about the success of the drive.
In conducting the casino business in Dhaka, the arrested casino criminal Selim Prodhan opened joint partnership business with a younger brother of a Awami League presidium member, said sources. Sources also alleged that the former Jubo League chairman also was a patron of the casino business in Dhaka.
According to the sources, Selim Prodhan, once a supplier of pleasure items to Tarique Zia, became very close to a presidium member of Awami Jubo League. Intelligence sources said Selim Prodhan was a close accomplice in all misdeeds of Tarique Zia. He had detailed information about the illegally accumulated billion dollar money of Tarique Zia.
After the fall of BNP, especially Tarique Zia, Selim Prodhan fled to Thailand. He invested all his illegal money over there. For long, he could not manage to return to the country. At one stage, he contacted a top Jubo League leader and succeeded appeasing him. Finally, he obtained the permission to return to the country.
After returning to country, resorting to various tactics including some nasty devices, he made friendship with some influential officials, providing them expensive foreign wine and beautiful girls. He used to invite some of those high officials to his ‘brothel’ which he operated in the guise of ‘Prodhan Beauty Care’ in city’s Gulshan area.
When he came to know regarding the vacancy of a top post in a government organisation, he started taking preparations for earning the post for his friend, who was a midlevel officer. He introduced his friend with government high-ups on different occasions to bring his (the officer) name in the good book of the government. This game continued for around six months. At one stage, Selim Prodhan, in association with his new Jubo League boss, was successful in making his friend the boss of the organisation.
His main focus was to make the organization neutral and thus to help terrorist Tarique Zia, sourced said. Sources said, Selim Prodhan even used a black Nissan Patrol jeep with a flag stand and tag written ‘Prime Minister Office’ to dodge the eyes of the law enforcers.
However, Bangladesh Post could not independently verify the claim. RAB arrested Selim Prodhan at Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka when he was on board a Thailand-bound flight on Sept 30. The elite force, later, seized a cache of local and foreign currencies worth over Tk 10.6 million and liquor from his residence and office.
