Sutrapur Awami League (AL) vice-president Enamul Haque and joint secretary Rupon Haque, both shareholders of the Wanderers Club in the Fakirapool area of the city, jointly own at least 20 houses in old Dhaka, according to sources. Among these houses, 10 are in Gendaria and 10 in the Sutrapur thana area. Enamul and Rupon, both siblings, purchased the houses with their casino earnings.
Speakng on the condition of anonymity, several AL local leaders said the two siblings were operating casinos at the Wanderers Club for a long time. Before that, they used to make money by setting up gambling boards in different places. The leaders also said that the locals had known them as gamblers. They used to do a gambling business called ‘One-Ten’. At one stage, they started a casino by entering into a contract with the Wanderers Club.
The leaders alleged that when Shah Alam Murad became the general secretary of the Dhaka Metropolitan South AL unit, the two brothers acquired the important posts of the Gendaria and Sutrapur thana AL by paying huge sums of money to Shah Alam.
Earlier, they were not involved with the AL. But after getting the AL posts, they became aggressive and started the casino business. At least 14 members of their family were also involved in the same business, the local leaders alleged.
When contacted, Dhaka South AL general secretary Shah-e-Alam Murad told The Independent that he did not know that Enamul was involved in the casino business. “We will take organisational action against him. We will tell the unit’s president-secretary to send a show-cause notice to him,” he said.
On Tuesday, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) recovered more than Tk. 5 crore, 730 bhori of gold ornaments and six guns from the residences of Enamul Haque and his two accomplices. But Enamul and Rupon could not be detained. Enamul used to bring home the money he received from the club. Enamul has already left the country and Rupon is now on the run, said Lt Col Shafi Ullah Bulbul, commanding officer of RAB-3.
Later, the RAB conducted another drive at the three-storey building of Rashid, another aide of Enamul in the same area, and seized Tk. 2 crore from another vault there. (i)
