Industrialist Ragib Ali, son get 14-year jail terms for fraud

A Sylhet court has convicted industrialist Ragib Ali and his son Abdul Hye of forging land ministry documents to grab temporality of a tea estate.

The father and son each have been sentenced to 14 years in jail on Thursday in the verdict delivered by the court of the chief metropolitan magistrate. 

Ragib and his family fled to India hours after a court issued arrest warrant for him and his son in the case, but they were brought back late last year.

According to case details, a Hindu man donated the Tarapur Tea Estate and all other properties to Sri Sri Radha Krishna Jeu in 1915.

One Pankaj Kumar Gupta became the 'Sebayet' (supervisor) of the estate in 1971 and later left for India, making Majid the Sebayet of the temporality.

Questions were raised over a Muslim becoming a Sebayet of a Hindu temporality. An investigation was launched later.

Abul Hye

The investigator found that Majid had forged a land ministry official’s signature to lease the estate to Ragib's son Hye for 99 years.

Ragib sold the estate dividing it into 337 plots.

The 78-year-old businessman is the vice-chairman of the Southeast Bank.

An annual publication, British Bangladeshi Who's Who, describes North South University Trust’s Founder Life Member Ragib as a philanthropist.

The UK-Bangladeshi businessman is also associated with bank, stock-broking, insurance companies, and many other business houses, the publication says.

According to the publication, he is also the managing director of Kohinoor Industries Ltd and has served as chairman of Southeast Bank Limited.