The Dhaka Special Tribunal-2 on Tuesday sentenced former Juba League leader Ismail Hossain Chowdhury Samrat, an alleged kingpin of the illegal casino business in Dhaka, to life term imprisonment in an arms case.
Judge Md Ibrahim Miah of the tribunal pronounced the verdict in the absence of the convict.
The tribunal announced that the punishment would be effective from the day of the convict’s arrest or surrender.
The court, in its observation, said, ‘The record shows that the accused, Md Ismail Chowdhury Samrat, was the president of the Dhaka South unit of Juba League, the youth wing of the then ruling party, the Awami League. Therefore, he should have been known as a leader dedicated to public peace, progress, and welfare.’
‘But, what I see in the record is that the prosecution has portrayed him as a symbolic driver of abuse of power,’ the court observed.
It also stated that ‘he possessed an electric shock machine, special batons, and amphetamine-based drug yaba tablets, which were used to torture people in a secret chamber. We are uncertain how many people he tortured using these.’
Samrat, identified as the ‘casino king’ in the FIR, was involved with about 10 clubs established for casino operations.
The court also said that he formed a powerful cadre force to continue extortion in government and private offices and used them to sustain his sinful reign unchallenged.
Samrat, who remained free on bail in the case, went into hiding after the fall of the Awami League regime on August 5, 2024 amid a student-led mass uprising.Â
The tribunal recorded statements of 10 prosecution witnesses, out of 14, during the trial in the case filed under the Arms Act.
On January 16 this year, the tribunal framed charges in the case against Samrat in his absence and issued an arrest warrant against him.
On October 6, 2019, RAB members arrested Samrat and his close aide Enamul Haque Arman, former vice-president of the Dhaka South unit of Juba League, at Cumilla near the Bangladesh-India border.
He came under the spotlight after RAB busted illegal casino businesses at different sporting clubs in Dhaka and found his involvement with the casino business.
Samrat was then brought from Cumilla to Dhaka.
Later, RAB conducted operations at various establishments where Samrat either lived or carried out political and business activities.
RAB also took Samrat to his political office in Kakrail where he had been reportedly staying since the crackdown began on September 18, 2019.
Later, RAB members at a press briefing said that they had seized two torture devices, a pistol with five bullets, two hides of Kangaroo, 1,160 pieces of Yaba pills and 19 bottles of foreign liquor from the Kakrail office.
A RAB mobile court sentenced Samrat to six months’ imprisonment for possessing wild animal hides and another six months for possessing illegal liquor.
On October 7, 2019, RAB-1 DAD Abdul Khalek filed a case under the Narcotics and Arms Act with Ramna police station in Dhaka.
After the investigation, the investigation officer of the case, RAB-1 Sub-Inspector Shekhar Chandra Mallick, submitted a charge sheet in the arms case to the court on November 6, 2019.
