Special Correspondent:

Massive allegations of corruption, anomalies and illegal wealth acquisition through bribery have been intensified against Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) Additional Chief Engineer (Roads and Bridges’ Maintenance Unit) Javed Karim.

Despite all the allegations, he has engaged in the race of lobbying to get promotion as Chief Engineer as the working period of the incumbent Chief Engineer Abdur Rashid Mia has almost reached at the last stage.

There is various information tHat, Javed Karim is now moving from door to door of Senior Secretaries and advisers and their sub-ordinates to manage them for the next promotion. To grab the promotion, he has reportedly formed a big amount of fund to impress the lobbyists, sources said.

Various investigations revealed tHat, not only in his own name, but also in the name of his wife, the official Javed Karim has built an empire of assets worth about hundreds of crores of Taka in various parts of the country including the capital deceiving the eyes of law enforcers and even Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

Md. Arman Hossain, a resident of Uttara in the capital, filed a written complaint to the advisor of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives against Javed Karim.

According to the information obtained from tHat complaint, he amassed mountain like illegal assets through bribery and abusing of his power at the concerned department.

There is a large shaped of garage owned by Javed next to ASSK Amari Way Developers Limited on Road No. 130 in Gulshan-1 of the capital, which has an area of at least 30 kathas of land with a market value of about Tk 100 crore.

In addition, he has established a luxurious house, which no is 55 on the Road no. 25/A in Banani of the capital spending over hundred crore of Taka.

It is also reported tHat, he has bought a 30-katha of plot on Shahid Abdul Aziz Road in Pragati Swarani and rented out the place for painting automobiles garage.

He and his wife also own several plots, flats and houses in different areas of Mirpur, Uttara, Aftabnagar, Bashundhara, Jhilmil Residential area, Keraniganj and Narayanganj. The market value of these assets has exceeded one thousand crore of Taka, sources said.

The assets include a 30-katha garage in Gulshan in his own name with a market value of Tk 100 crore, a house in Banani 25/A with a market value of more than Tk 95 crore, a flat in Uttara (3,200 square feet) with a market value of Tk 5.2 crore, a house in Gazipur with a market value of Tk 12.60 crore, a house in Narayanganj worth Tk 6.5 crore, a flat in Keraniganj worth Tk 1.2 crore, plot number 69 in Bashundhara (D Block) in his wife’s name with a market value of Tk 40 crore, plot number 65 in Purbachal worth Tk 10.5 crore, plot number 98 in Aftabnagar worth Tk 10.6 crore and a plot in Jhilmil worth Tk 2.9 crore.

Jabed Karim’s main and close corruption accomplice was Md. Zahid Hossain Chowdhury, APS of Md. Tajul Islam, also Awami League leader and former Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives. With the APS Zahid’s patronization, Javed formed an influential syndicate at his office arena.

It is alleged tHat, bribes ranging from Tk 50 lakh to Tk 1 crore were collected on the base of position against the appointment of each Project Director (PD) or Executive Engineer (Exen) in the district level of the LGED.

During the Awami League government, Jabed’s syndicate used to ‘manage’ administrative officials of Dhaka’s various parts including Agargaon, Mirpur and Mohammadpur to execute their works and achieve their goals. They used to handle all sector including allocation of funds to government projects, postings and transfers in exchange of big sum of bribe. Thus they established ‘No bribe, no service’ like system at the department.

It is learned tHat, although Jabed Karim gained unimaginable money and power during the Sheikh Hasina government, he is currently trying to keep the situation favorable by introducing himself as a member of the BNP family, which has turned into a matter of joke to all. In contrary, he was an active activist of Bangladesh ChHatra League during his studentship, insiders said.

It is alleged tHat, the ‘Javed Syndicate’ used to donate crores of Taka to Hasina’s personal fund to prevent the students and public movement in the run-up to the fall of the government in late 2024. They also continued their illegal activities by giving large sums of money to some members of the law enforcement agencies.

Javed is accused of collecting bribes at the rate of 2 percent in every development project while he was the executive engineer in Munshiganj. An audit objection of Tk 1,28,549 was also filed against him at tHat time, sources claimed.

Later, allegations of embezzlement of hundreds of crores of Taka arose while he was serving as the director of the Multipurpose Disaster Shelter Project (MDRSP).

Several LGED officials on condition of anonymity said tHat, during Javed Karim’s tenure, he in collaboration with some other unscrupulous associates amassed crores of Taka through bribery and commission trade in exchange of transfer, posting and project approval. But, no one dared to speak out against his misdeeds.

When this correspondent tried to contact with him over cell phone, which number was provided at the concerned official site, the number was found switched off.

Even, Chief Engineer of LGED Abdur Rashid Mia did not make any comment in this regard, even after calling and sending massages to him several times over the issue.