The National Board of Revenue has filed a police complaint against Jamuna Group Chairman Nurul Islam Babul and journalist Helal Uddin of Jugantor newspaper owned by the group.
Ramna Model Police Station OC Mashiur Rahman told bdnews24.com that NBR Second Secretary (Administration) A H M Abdul Karim had filed a general diary.
The meeting was presided over by NBR Chairman Najibur Rahman.
The NBR described the Jamuna Group as a business entity involved in a ‘huge amount of tax evasion’.
‘Dainik Jugantor’ and ‘Jamuna TV’ owned by the Jamuna Group have been pulled up for a series of reports that smack of ‘vendetta’ and are described in the NBR statement as ‘downright scurrilous, defamatory, false and baseless’ .
“If an organisation like NBR that is responsible for collection of revenue cannot function, the nation’s development will suffer seriously. So an attack on NBR is like an attack on the nation itself,” the NBR statement said, quoting its chief Rahman.
Babul dismissed the charges and told bdnews24.com: “He (Najibur Rahman) is mad. I don’t know how he has come to the conclusion that the Jamuna Group evades taxes.”
The revenue board statement alleged that the ‘Jugantor’ newspaper appeared to be working on a ‘well-worked out long-term plan’ to thwart the NBR from achieving its revenue targets.
“This conspiracy must be foiled and necessary measures for that must be adopted immediately,” said the NBR.
Reiterating the NBR’s ‘zero tolerance’ towards tax evasion, the media release called for action to foil the ‘conspiracy’ allegedly hatched by Babul and his Jamuna Group to thwart efforts to boost the national economy.
The NBR release said seven serialised reports in ‘Jugantor’ were published targeting the NBR chairman in a ‘very planned way.’
“Such false and baseless reporting is intended to drive a wedge within the NBR and create differences between the NBR chairman and those serving under him.
“So the general diary has been filed to stop the malicious campaign against NBR by Jugantor newspaper,” said the release.
It said a detailed picture about the tax evasion by the Jamuna Group of Companies was presented at the special board meeting.
Citing the chairman, the release said ‘Jugantor’ journalist Helal Uddin has been filing several “misleading reports involving NBR officials and their family members to protect the vested interests of dubious business entities”.
“We need to unite against the evil designs of these business entities,” the media statement said.
But Jamuna boss Babul was quick to retort.
“Why is he going mad over our companies? We do everything upfront.”
And then he threatened to write an open letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on this issue, which he said will be published in Thursday’s edition of ‘Jugantor’.
Babul said when Najibur Rahman joined as NBR chairman, a Jugantor reporter upset him in his first media conference by asking him a few tricky questions.
“After that he called me to have tea with me and praised me a lot. I said we should be able to work together because as businessmen we sought good working relations with the NBR,” Babul said.
Babul alleged that the NBR chief asked him to sack Helal uddin at the time.
“I said sorry on behalf of Helal and promised he will not repeat what he has done,” he said.
Babul said he refused to sack Helal because he was a senior journalist and sacking him would trigger repercussions in the media fraternity.
“I told the NBR chairman that if I sack Helal, he will work somewhere else and that will not help you. So I suggested that Helal stays in Jugantor and does not disturb him.”
Babul said the NBR chief had refused to accept his proposal and started investigating Helal and Babul’s whole family.
“Exactly like 1/11,” said Babul. “He (Najibur Rahman) is a mad guy and is up to his antics all the time.”
Babul threw a challenge to the NBR to disprove any of the facts reported by ‘Jugantor’.
“The NBR chairman seems to have been provoked by someone to go after us,” he said.
Source: bdnews24