Published : 01 Aug 2025, 06:05 PM
Updated : 21 Aug 2026, 01:35 PM
Police have recovered nearly Tk 300,000 from the rented flat of Abdur Razzak bin Sulaiman Riyad, a dismissed student leader of the anti-discrimination movement, claiming it to be part of Tk 1 million allegedly extorted from the home of former MP Shammi Ahmed.
The money was found Thursday morning in a room Riyad used in a shared apartment at Dhaka’s Badda, Gulshan police chief Hafizur Rahman said.
Riyad had disclosed the location during police remand the night before, he said.
Riyad, who was arrested on Saturday, had been living in one room of a three-bedroom flat shared with several others.
Police described his room as lavishly furnished. His alleged accomplice, Kazi Gaurab Apu, the second accused in the Gulshan case, is on the run.
On Wednesday, Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s media chief Talebur Rahman said four blank cheques worth over Tk 20 million had also been recovered from another of Riyad’s flats in West Rajabazar.
The cheques, issued by a company called Trade Zone, include two for Tk 10 million each, and one each for Tk 1.5 million and Tk 1 million, he added.
The Trade Zone office is based in Kalabagan and reportedly linked to former Rangpur MP Abul Kalam Azad.
Police said Riyad coerced the company into handing over the cheques. Officials said Riyad had admitted he received Tk 500,000 from the Tk 1 million extorted from Shammi’s residence, with the remainder split among others in the group.
Police say they will show Tk 298,000 as recovered evidence and are now investigating a Southeast Bank account registered to Riyad.
Officers also allege that after the fall of the Awami League government, Riyad and Apu formed a criminal group, engaged in land grabbing and intimidation to collect money, which “became their profession”.
Although DMP officials said Kalabagan police were preparing a case over the cheques, no formal complaint had been lodged by Thursday evening. Kalabagan police chief Fazle Ashiq confirmed they had not received any report.
Efforts to contact former MP Azad and his company’s manager were unsuccessful.
Five individuals allegedly connected to the Students Against Discrimination were arrested on Saturday.
The arrestees are Riyad, 25, Md Sakadaun Siam, 22, Sadman Sadab, 21, and Ibrahim Hossain, 24. Among them, Riyad is allegedly the acting convenor of the student group’s United International University wing, Ibrahim the convenor of the Dhaka Metropolitan unit, and members Sakadaun Siam and Sadman Sadab.
Ibrahim, Siam, and Sadman have been permanently expelled from the organisation.
