Extortion of 12 thousand crore rupees in 12 years, led by Shajahan Khan

Shajahan Khan, a member of the presidium of the Awami League and former shipping minister, was one of the most corrupt and influential ministers-MPs of the Awami League government. He was arrested last Thursday (September 5) from Dhanmondi area in a murder case. He is now in remand.

He was the minister and also the president of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation. So he had absolute dominance in this sector. There was a huge Mastan army. His forces carried out his orders to the letter. It is alleged that Shajahan Khan's people have extorted 12 thousand crore rupees in the transport sector from 2009 to 2020. Out of this, more than 6 thousand crores of rupees have been extorted under his umbrella in the last 4 years. This extortion was legitimized by the formulation of guidelines regarding 'organization management expenses in road transport' in the last 4 years after Corona.

There are complaints that Shajahan Khan has institutionalized road extortion. Contributions have been collected through 249 labor unions belonging to Road Transport Workers Federation. A large part of it regularly went into Shahjahan Khan's pocket.

In the past, the non-partisan caretaker government of BNP called for a large-scale movement on other demands, and the traffic on the road was stopped. This Shajahan Khan was also behind it. He was also one of the obstacles to enacting the Road Transport Act by providing strict punishments to ensure road safety.

Meanwhile, according to the information given in the election affidavit, the annual income of Shajahan Khan in 2008 was 6 lakh 85 thousand taka. Which in 2024 has become 2 crore 21 lakh taka. During this time his income increased almost 32 times.

According to sources, soon after Awami League came to power in 2009, leader Shajahan Khan became irresistible in the transport sector. He had sole influence in the transport sector until the fall of the Awami League government on August 5. Since 2009, various amounts of toll were collected on the roads in scattered form.

It was decided to start public transport from June 1, 2020 after the closure during the Corona period. Due to the strict stance of law and order forces, road toll collection was stopped for 3 months of June, July and August 2020. At this time, a new method of collecting subscriptions was devised. Guidelines regarding road transport organization operating expenses or service charges are formulated. In this way he continued extortion.

Transport workers leader Mohammad Hanif Khokon said Shajahan Khan was the leader of reckless extortion in the transport sector without any regard for the law. One-fifth of the contributions collected at various terminals and upazila levels went to the name of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation. Everything in this federation is going on at the behest of Shahjahan Khan. From 2009 to 2020, Shahjahan Khan's people have extorted 12 thousand crore rupees in the transport sector.

He also said that Shajahan Khan and his associates made huge amount of cash and wealth in the name of family, relatives and relatives with the proceeds of extortion. Investigate immediately and seize these illegal assets and deposit them in the state treasury.