Ismail Hossain Chowdhury Samrat was the Jubo League president of Dhaka south and is known by the epithet ‘Casino Samrat’.
In the last ten years, he was involved in tender manipulation, occupation of land and homes and extortion in Dhaka South.
Hailing from Feni, Samrat’s father served at a low post in Rajdhani Unnayan Katripakkha (RAJUK) and Samrat grew up in Dhaka courtesy his father’s job.
Initially, he lived at the government quarters in Kakrail and got involved in politics in 1990.
In the 199-96 period, he left Awami League’s student wing Chhatra League and joined Jubo League and was elected organizational secretary of Dhaka city south Jubo League. In 2012, he became the president of Jubo League south and began his casino trade.
He used to supply ‘activists’ to political rallies and received accolades for presenting theme based rallies which attracted the attention of party high ups, earning Samrat accolades.
He also had close connection with media people and got wide coverage.
Last year, he was accused of demanding millions from Anjuman Mofidul Islam, an Islamic charity, specializing in helping the poor deal with interment of dead relatives where the prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her younger sister are also patrons.
When this news reached the PM, she became livid and dissolved the Dhaka south Jubo League committee.
During the ongoing drive against casinos, Samrat’s name came up and he was arrested on Oct 6 morning from Cumilla.
Samrart had been under surveillance for some time and tried to leave the country.
Samrat is also a gambler and used to spend ten days in Singapore every month for gambling. Since he is a known first rate gambler, Changi Airport used to offer him special facilities and took him to the Marina Bay casino directly from the airport in a limousine.
He was accompanied in his trips by Jubo League leader Armanul Huq Arman, Mominul Huq Sayeed, his elder brother Badal and others.