Jamaat leader, brother sued for extortion naming OC in Feni

Feni Jamaat-e-Islami leader Zakir Hossain. UNB

Feni, Feb 13 – A case has been filed against Jamaat-e-Islami leader Zakir Hossain and his brother Amir Hossain for allegedly extorting money using the name of Feni Model Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Marma Singha Tripura.

The case was lodged on Wednesday night by OC Marma Singha Tripura himself.

Zakir Hossain, 40, son of Zahir Ahmed from Gojaria village in Daganbhuiyan upazila, was recently expelled from Feni Alia Madrasa. According to the case statement, he demanded extortion money from the madrasa’s principal, Mahmudul Hasan, falsely claiming it was needed to remove Hasan’s name from a charge sheet.

A phone call recording of the transaction later surfaced on social media, revealing that Zakir took Tk 2 lakh, while his brother Amir later collected an additional Tk 1 lakh. The case statement also accuses the duo of misusing the OC’s name to commit the fraud.

On February 9, a 2-minute 27-second audio clip of Zakir demanding extortion went viral on social media.

Following the incident, Jamaat-e-Islami’s Feni district unit expelled Zakir Hossain from the party.

In a press release signed by the district’s Publicity and Media Secretary ANM Abdur Rahim, Jamaat said that Zakir was expelled under Article 62, Clause 2 of its constitution for violating party discipline and engaging in unethical activities.

Zakir, a Rukon [key member] of Jamaat and former assistant secretary of the Bangladesh Labour Welfare Federation’s Feni Municipality unit—an organisation affiliated with Jamaat—has been residing with his family in the Pathan Bari area of Feni town for a long time. - UNB