A Supreme Court lawyer on Sunday requested the Anti-Corruption Commission to inquire into assets of former inspector general of police Benazir Ahmed, his wife and two daughters.
It is alleged that Benazir amassed illegal assets by聽 abusing his powers.聽聽聽
Lawyer Syed Sayedul Haque Suman, an independent lawmaker from the Habiganj-4 constituency, also sought legal action against Benazir Ahmed, his wife Zeeshan Mirza and their daughters Farhin Rishta Binte Benazir and Tahsin Raisa Binte Benazir for allegedly amassing huge illegal wealth.聽聽聽聽
Suman, also an Awami League activist, made the requests to the commission鈥檚 chairman, after filing a written complaint with the commission headquarters.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽
Suman submitted a clipping of a news article titled 鈥楢laddin鈥檚 lamp in Benazir鈥檚 house鈥� which was published in daily Kalerkantha on March 31, 2024, along with the complaint seeking probe into the unusual assets of Benazir and his family members.
The complaint was submitted to the commission, the day after Benazir defended himself against the reports on him and his family members, stating that the reports published in newspapers recently are false, distorted and intentional.
Benazir came up with the claims through a video message on Facebook on Saturday in response to the recent reports published by several media outlets against him.
Suman in his complaint said that Benazir Ahmed, who retired on September 30, 2022, after 34 years and seven months of his service, amassed a huge amount of property in the name of his wife, and two daughters, which is significantly disproportionate to his known sources of income.聽聽聽
Referring to the report, he said that Benazir owned different assets such as six companies, expensive flats and houses in the upscale area of the capital, shares in best holding, five-star hotels, Le Meridien Dhaka, Savannah Eco Resort in Sahapur union in Gopalganj, huge land properties in different areas, including 418 decimal of land on Saint Martin鈥檚 island which was declared an ecologically critical area in Cox鈥檚 Bazar.
鈥楾he amount of wealth owned by Benazir, his wife and their two daughters are significantly higher than their legitimate sources of income and there are sufficient reasons to believe that Benazir Ahmed acquired the properties disproportionate to his known sources of income, by abusing his position,鈥� Suman said in the complaint to the commission.聽聽
The series of reports of a huge amount of illegal assets belonging to former IGP Benazir Ahmed and his wife and daughters triggered huge criticism.
The reports mentioned a lavish lifestyle of Benazir Ahmed, who also served as the director general of the Rapid Action Battalion from January 2015 to April 2020 before he was promoted to the post of IGP on April 15, 2020, and his holdings of shares in different companies.
According to the reports, his 鈥榰nusual assets did not match with the legal sources of income of the former IGP, who received from the government 鈥楽huddhachar Purashkar鈥欌�攁n award given based on 10 criteria, including honesty, morality, and proper financial management.
Of the assets, 鈥楽avannah Eco Resort鈥� in Sahapur union in Gopalganj is one that Benazir has built by spending a fortune and which has his wife Zeeshan Mirza as the chairman, their elder daughter Farhin Rista binte Benazir as the managing director, and their younger daughter Tahsin Raisa binte Benazir as the director.
The media reports also claimed that the ownership of Benazir family members has been traced at least to six companies, which have an investment of over Tk 500 crore.
According to the reports, five of these companies were founded by Benazir himself, which include Savannah Farm Products, Savannah Agro Limited, Savannah Natural Park, Savannah Eco Resort, and Savannah Country Club, all in Gopalganj district.
The media reports have also brought allegations of encroaching on forest land and building a resort in Gazipur, where Benazir鈥檚 family owns a quarter of the resort.
Benazir owns expensive flats and houses in upscale areas of the capital, while his two daughters own 2,00,000 shares in Best Holdings and the five-star Le M茅ridien Dhaka hotel, according to media reports.
