Chatttogram Election Commission office assistant Zainal Abedin and his family used to live in a tin roof shack two years ago. But two years later, suddenly he is a multi-millionaire.
He has a five storied building and locals feel that Zainal has made the money by illegally including Rohinyas in the voting list. However, his family claims that his affluence has come from Zainal’s brother who works in Oman.
Zainal is now in police custody and district election officer, Munir Hossain, says that he (Zainal) used to include names of Rohingyas with a stolen laptop.
A local says: “Zianal’s ancestors were fishermen but now they live in opulence and during Eid ul Azha, sacrificed a cow worth Tk 190,000.”
Zainal could not go beyond class eight due to financial difficulties and took a job at the EC in 2004. His brother in law also works at the EC and his younger brother, who is a cook, works in Oman.
After working at the Rangamati Election Commission, he took a transfer and came to Chattogram office and then began his fraudulent activities, according to reports. In exchange for NIDs, he took millions from the Rohingyas.
Locals say that only a few years ago, Zainal had to take regular loans from NGOs but now, is the owner of a five storied building. Zainal’s mother refutes these allegations, saying: “My younger son lives in Oman and he sent the money for constructing the building.”
Though my younger son has another plot, the two brothers decided to make the house together and stay on this land since it's closer to the main road, she said.
Younger brother, Jasim Uddin, says: “I have a shop in Oman and used the income from the shop to construct the house; I sent money through my bank account and you can check it.”
EC sources say that Zianal was punished before for involvement in making false NIDs; a case was lodged against him in Rangamati and as punishment, his increment for three years was cancelled.