Author Syed Waliullah’s property misappropriated by cousin, his son says

The son of renowned author Syed Waliullah claims that the property his father owned in Dhaka’s Gulshan was stolen from his immediate family through fraud.

Iraj Waliullah at a Dhaka court. Iraj Waliullah at a Dhaka court.

Syed Waliullah Syed Waliullah

Iraj Waliullah made the claim in a criminal case filed with the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court on Sunday.

Metropolitan Magistrate Satyabrata Sikdar heard the accusation and ordered the Criminal Investigation Department or CID to probe the matter and submit a report, said lawyer Dipankar Ghosh, who represented the petitioners.

Iraj accused his father’s cousin Kamal Ziaul Islam, his wife Khadija Islam, and their son Rayyan Kamal in the case over ‘breach of trust, property embezzlement and fraud’, Rana Dasgupta, chief lawyer for the petitioner, toldbdnews24.com.

Syed Waliullah died while working in Paris in 1971.

Syed Waliullah

A deed on 1.2 bigha of land in Gulshan was then transferred to Waliullah’s French wife Anne-Marie Waliullah and their two children Iraj and Simine.

Iraj and his mother and sister then gave power of attorney to Kamal Ziaul Islam to look after the property in 1981.

“Though they preserved and managed the owners’ interests, Kamal Ziaul Islam, his wife and their son misappropriated the property through forgery and deception,” Iraj said.

They also moved to build a multi-storey building under their own company: Nirman International, he alleged.

According to the case documents, the accused took out loans and mortgages on the land and the building by forging a fake power of attorney document. The loans and mortgages were later repaid, but the original power of attorney did not permit them to take out loans in such a manner.

Syed Waliullah, the author of Lal Shalu and Kaado Nodi Kaado, served as a diplomat during the Pakistan era in 1951 and the 1960s. He worked as the first secretary of the Pakistan Embassy in Paris from 1960 to 1967 and then was employed as a UNESCO programme specialist in Paris until 1971. He supported Bangladesh’s independence movement from abroad.

Kamal Ziaul Islam, managing director of Nirman International, is a former president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board.

His wife, Khadija Islam, is the chairman of the construction company. Their children Rayyan Kamal and Rahat Kamal are the other directors.

bdnews24.com has yet to receive a comment from them on the allegations.