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In Bangladesh, late Thursday night, the country’s well-known economist Abul Barkat was arrested for cheating 297 million Taka.
Famous economist Abul Barkat was sent to jail on Friday in a case related to corruption in Bangladesh. According to Dhaka Tribune, more than 20 policemen raided Barkat’s house late on Thursday night. He was then taken into custody.
Barkat has studied at Dhaka University for four decades. He was made the chairman of the Janata Bank during the reign of PM Sheikh Hasina in 2009. He is also known for advocating Hindu minorities. Barkat has openly criticized forces like radical Islamic ideologies, especially the Jamaat-e-Islami.
Barkat warned in 2016 that if the attack on minorities and their assets continue to be illegally occupied, there would not be a single Hindu in Bangladesh in the coming 30 years. His statement was very popular in Bangladesh and was also disputed in some circles.
225 crore corruption case related to bank
Abul Barkat is alleged to have wrongly helped the readymade garment company ‘Anontex Group’ to get loans during his tenure and embezzled 2.97 billion taka (about 225 crore rupees) associated with the Janata Bank.
Bangladesh’s Anti -Corruption Commission (ACC) filed a case against him in this case. The investigating agency alleges that Barkat made fake documents, passed the loan in the name of fictional buildings and factories and deliberately shown the price of the purchased land to get more loans.
A total of 23 people have been accused in this case, including Abul Barkat, including the name of former Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman. During the court appearance on Friday, the ACC demanded a three -day remand, while the defense filed a bail petition. The court currently did not pronounce any decision on both the petitions and till then ordered Barkat to be sent to jail.
Abul Barkat appeared in Dhaka Court on Friday. The court ordered him to be sent to jail.
Daughter bid- arrest is done without showing warrant
Barkat’s daughter Aruni Barkat told the media that 20-25 people, who were calling themselves policemen, entered their father’s bedroom at night and took them without showing arrest warrants. The family had no prior knowledge of the case registered against him and he was not even told why he was detained.
Aruni said that his father taught Dhaka University for 40 years. Always worked for the weaker sections of the society. It is now wrong to arrest him without investigation.
Barkat wrote a book on the oppression of Hindus
Abul Barkat was awarded international honors by Japan in the year 2022 with the Order of the Rising Sun. Barkat wrote the Political Economy of Reforming Agriculture Land-Water Bodies in Bangladesh in 2016.
In this book, he claimed that between 1964 and 2013, 1.13 crore Hindu had left the country due to religious oppression. According to Barkat, 632 Hindus were leaving 2,30, 612 Hindus every day in 2016. He had warned on this basis that if this continues, there will be no Hindu left in Bangladesh by 2046.
Barkat also told in his book that the government has declared the land of 60% Hindus by declaring enemy property. The professor dedicated this book to a friend of his childhood ‘Buno’ tribe, who is no longer known.
Yunus accused of appeasement of fundamentalists
Many people are considering Barkat’s arrest as an attack on government repression and civil society. There have also been allegations about his arrest that the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus is working on a strategy to crush the voices of disagreement. Minority organizations have warned that it is a serious threat to the country’s secularism and social unity.
Ever since the Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus has been running the government of Bangladesh, the allegations of Islamic fundamentalism and atrocities on minorities have intensified in the country. Yunus is alleged to have lifted the restrictions on radical organizations like Jamaat-e-Islami as soon as they came to the government, and released several controversial leaders.
In addition, he also banned secular parties like the student league and then Awami League. The government is also alleged to have distorted history in school books, claiming that Bangladesh’s independence was announced by Ziaur Rahman, who is considered the ideal of radical Muslims.
