‘Trinamool MP is Jamaat’s frontman’

Trinamool Congress MP Ahmed Hassan Imran in the Rajya Sabha is a ‘frontman’ for Bangladesh’s Jamaat-e-Islami, CPI(M) Central Committee member Gautam Deb has said, reports The Hindu.

Rajya Sabha is upper house of Indian parliament.

Imran had “close association” with many senior Jamaat leaders, the paper quoted Deb as saying at a press conference held the CPI(M)’s North 24 Parganas district headquarters.

Imran, however, denied the allegation, threatening to sue Deb if he was unable to substantiate his claim.

The newspaper said Deb had quoted from a “secret document” that contained allegations appearing in various publications and on websites.

Photo: The Hindu

Former West Bengal Housing Minister Deb claimed Imran was a former president of the Students Islamic Movement in India (SIMI), a banned outfit, and had developed ties with several top-ranking Jamaat leaders in Bangladesh.

“These leaders are Motiur Rahman Nizami, Delwar Hossain Sayedee, Mir Quasem Ali and others,” The Hindu quoted Deb as saying.

Nizami is the present Jamaat chief charged with crimes against humanity during Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War.

Sayedee is the senior Jamaat leader and was sentenced to death by the country’s war crimes tribunal in February last year.

Mir Quasem Ali is said to have been third in Al-Badr militia command structure during the 1971 war. He is also one of the top financiers of the Jamaat.

The verdict in his war crimes case is expected any day.

Gautam Deb also claimed that the Trinamool MP had “appropriated” Islamic Bank funds while working as the bank’s Indian counsellor in Jeddah.

He also worked for a ““pro-Jamaat newspaper of Bangladesh in West Bengal”, the former minister said.

According to Deb, Imran had also got a Rs 66 crore loan from the Saradha Group, a ponzi company involved in a massive financial scam that is proving to be a huge embarrassment for the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal.

Imran, however, said he had been in public life for the past 33 years, much the same period when the Left was power in West Bengal, and Deb’s government should have taken action if the allegations being made now were true, The Hindu report said.