Khaled Mahmud, alias ‘Casino Khaled’ has revealed the names of several influential people during questioning at RAB custody. He also spilled the beans about the amount of money he received from each casino. It’s believed that the Khaled, once a Freedom Party activist, later became a Jubo League member and has billions in several local and foreign accounts.
Investigation officer of Khaled’s case, Deputy Director of RAB-3, Faizul Islam, said: “Remand is underway and the information found from him is being assessed; we will know the details once the process is done.”
Sources say, during the latter part of the 80s, Khaled was an active member of Freedom Party and was close the Mirza Khokon, brother of BNP leader Mirza Abbas. Later, he joined AL and gradually became organizational secretary of Jubo League’s Dhaka city south section.
Khaled’s life as an extortionist began at that time and he often worked as a close accomplice of underworld terrorist Zeesan. After getting involved in casino, he earned huge amounts of money and gave monthly payments to members of the law enforcers and senior leaders.
From Motijheel based Youngmen’s Fakirerpool Club he earned Tk 4 million every month, Tk 300,000 from Muktijoddha Club, Tk 30,000 from transport services in Shahjahanpur area, Tk 20,000 from the shops on the pavements.
He has Tk 6.8 million at a Malaysian bank, Tk 15 million in Singapore, Thai Baht 100,000 in a bank in Bangkok, Tk 65 million at Standard Chartered bank in Bangladesh, Tk 190 million FDR at NCC Bank, Tk 5 million under his wife’s name at BRAC Bank and others.
He has revealed that in 2015, he gave Tk 6 million to a leading leader of Shechashebak League in 2015, Tk 50 million to an Awami League leader, Tk 4 million to a leading Jubo League leader of Dhaka south and Tk 4 million to another political leader in hiding.
He also gave Tk 20 million to two mid ranking AL leaders and paid regular money to two additional deputy commissioners of police and DB.
Initially, he worked for Samrat but later, had his own gang of cohorts, controlling Motijheel, Shahjahanpur, Rampura, Sabujbagh, Khilgaon and Mugdha. He also controlled all government tenders in these areas, including those from RAJUK, Rail ministry, National Sports Council, Water Development Board, ministry of youth, WASA etc.
After assessing information gleaned from Khaled, efforts are underway to arrest his acolytes.