The land was bought from the New Bashundhara Group, a local housing company in Bagerhat
Few years ago HM Badiuzzaman Sohag was just another student of Dhaka University who came from a rural Bagerhat family of very modest means.
After his schoolteacher father died about 15 years ago, he took help from relatives to pay for his studies. Once when their tin-shed homestead was burnt to ashes by a fire, his family of seven was forced to live in a small kitchen because they had nowhere else to go.
Before he became the president of Chhatra League, ruling Awami League’s student front, his only known source of income was a job at a humanitarian organisation. With that, he used to bear his own expenses and also support his family back home.
Nothing much has changed in these three years, at least not on the surface. That job, by no stretch of the imagination, could fetch him a microbus, a luxury rental flat, enough land and a two-storey building at his village home which his neighbours described as “vast” and “palatial.”
Back in Bagerhat
Our correspondent recently visited Sohag’s village home.
KM Lutfor Rahman was the headmaster of the SB Kalkabari Primary School when Sohag was a student there. “Sohag’s father Abu Talib Howlader was a teacher at the school and the only earning member of the family of seven,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
According to local residents, apart from the two-storey “palace” that he has been erecting at his village home, he has also bought two pieces of land in the Sorui area in Bagerhat town at a cost of Tk1 crore.
Sohag denies buying any house in the town.
The land was bought from the New Bashundhara Group, a local housing company in Bagerhat.
Md Abdul Mannan, managing director of the group, said: “I have forgotten whose name was officially written in the document when they had registered for the land. But I can confirm that Sohag was involved in the purchase. I cannot provide you with any document now because our computer had crashed.”
A local resident said Sohag had donated large sums to educational institutions, mosques and among the destitute to earn a reputation as a philanthropist. “He has plans to contest in the parliamentary election from the area in future.”
University trustee
Sohag is now on the board of trustees of the Port City International University in Chittagong, launched in May 2013.
When contacted, Sohag said over phone: “I do not have any investment there. The [university] authorities included me for social reasons.”
Explaining the “social reason,” he said: “I am an educated person and I have a social standing.”
Luxury flat
The Chhatra League president lives in a luxury flat in a high rise building at Shegunbagicha in central Dhaka.
Imam, caretaker of the flat, confirmed that Sohag had rented the 1,700 square-foot flat for around Tk35,000 per month.
Sohag claims that it was actually his younger brother who had rented the flat.
Family income
Sohag claims that the job he took at the humanitarian organisation was for bearing the expenses of his political activities, not for supporting his family.
“My family properties are my main source of income. Now, I am trying to get involved in some other businesses,” he said.
Company directorship
Reportedly, Sohag is also a director of Spondon Power and Energy Limited, the local agent of some Chinese companies.
Denying that Sohag had any stake in his company, Spondon’s Chairman Rafik Kotwal told the Dhaka Tribune: “Sohag comes to visit us sometimes; but he has no official involvement.”
However, Adnan Bin Mannan, a former engineer at the company, confirmed that Sohag was a director there and another former Chhatra League leader Moshiur Rohamn Shihab was its managing director.
Sohag however told the Dhaka Tribune: “I go there [Spondon] sometimes as some former leaders of my organisation [Chhatra League] run the company.” Then again, when this reporter told him that a former employee had confirmed his directorship, Sohag did not refute.
Easy rider
Several Chhatra League leaders said their President Sohag started riding a Noah microbus the day after he got his post.
According to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), Sohag’s microbus is registered under the name of an account in the Babubazar Branch of the Pubali Bank. Ashiqul Islam, finance secretary of Chhatra League, is the holder of the account.
Ashiqul Islam said: “This is my car. Brother Sohag uses it and he bears all the expenses.”
On condition of anonymity, some central leaders of Chhatra League said Sohag had taken the microbus as a gift from Ashiqul Islam after he had become the president. Sohag made him the finance secretary in exchange for the car. Ashiqul, however, denied that allegation.
Phone call
Soon after ending the conversation with Ashiqul, this correspondent got a phone call from Sohag, in which he said: “Why are you digging up? Nobody is an angel. We also make mistakes. But it does not mean you have to write everything.”
Source: Dhaka Tribune
