A Dhaka court has granted bail to Ismail Hossain Chowdhury Samrat, a casino kingpin and former Dhaka city Jubo League leader, in a money laundering case and an arms case.
He is accused in at least eight cases including two narcotics cases.
Dhaka's first Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge granted him bail on Sunday in an arms case and by Dhaka Additional Metropolitan Magistrate Tofazzal Hossain granted him bail in a money laundering case.
Earlier, on 24 March 2021, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police applied for a three-day remand in the court of Additional Metropolitan Magistrate Abu Bakkar Siddique.
On the other hand, his lawyer applied for bail seeking cancellation of remand. The court fixed 10 April 2022 for the remand and bail hearing in his presence.
The CID filed the case with Ramna police station on 13 September 2020. The case was filed on the charge of smuggling Tk195 crore to Singapore and Malaysia with the help of accomplice Enamul Haque Arman, 56.
According to the case documents, Samrat gained huge amount of money through various illegal activities in Motijheel, Fakirapul, Paltan and Kakrail areas of the capital.
After reviewing the information of the accused's visit abroad, it was found that Samrat visited Singapore 35 times, Malaysia three times, Dubai twice and Hong Kong once from 2011-2019.
During the same period, Arman traveled to Singapore 23 times.
In 2019, the Samrat's name came up during the anti-casino operation of the law enforcement agencies. However, he remained absconding till being arrested on 6 October.
On 6 October 2019, RAB arrested Samrat and his associate Arman from village Kunja Sreepur of Alkora union under Chauddagram upazila of Cumilla district
At around 2pm on the same day, a team of the force led by RAB Executive Magistrate Sarwar Alam launched an operation at Samrat's office at Bhuiyan Trade Center in Kakrail. The executive magistrate sentenced him to six months in jail for illegally keeping animal skins in the office.
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