Ex-Jubo League leader Samrat remains in hospital after release from jail custody

Ismail Hossain Chowdhury Samrat, a former Jubo League leader who allegedly ran an illegal gambling racket, has been released from jail custody after receiving bail in the cases against him.

Samrat was under prison supervision at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Medical University for medical treatment. The formalities for his release were completed there.

Despite his release on bail, he remains at the hospital’s D-Block CCU for his treatment, said Abdus Selim, the deputy jailer at the Dhaka Central Jail.

“He is no longer in our custody,” Selim said. “He is under the supervision of the hospital authority.”

Samrat had previously secured bail in three cases against him. A court granted him bail in an Anti-Corruption Commission case over amassing illegal wealth on Wednesday, paving the way for his release.

“He has secured bail in four cases filed against him. He had spent an extended time in prison as part of his sentence issued by the mobile court. Now there is no legal bar to his release,” Samrat’s lawyer Ehsanul Haque Shomaji said earlier in the day.

ACC Deputy Director Md Jahangir started the case involving the illegal acquisition of over Tk 20 million by Samrat in 2019.

According to the case documents, Samrat bought plots in Dhaka's Gulshan, Dhanmondi and Uttara, among other areas, with his ill-gotten wealth. He also has assets worth around Tk 10 billion in Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai and the United States.

The ACC has also started a case against Samrat's close aide Enamul Hoque Arman, who is charged with amassing over Tk 20 million illegally.

Samrat, the former president of Jubo League’s Dhaka South unit, came under scrutiny over his alleged ties to the illegal gambling business after the Rapid Action Battalion busted casino operations in numerous clubs in the capital in September 2020.

He subsequently went into hiding before being arrested along with Arman in Cumilla on Oct 6 that year.

The RAB later conducted a raid on Samrat’s office in Kakrail’s Bhuiyan Trade Centre with him in tow.

They subsequently recovered a foreign pistol, 1,160 yaba tablets, 19 bottles of foreign liquor, two kangaroo hides and 'electrical torture equipment.'

A mobile court handed Samrat a six-month prison sentence for possession of the kangaroo skins under the Wild Animal Protection Act and he was later sent to the Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj.

Two cases were also filed against him under the Narcotics Control Act and Arms Act with the Ramna Police Station.