As all candidates of the 10th parliamentary polls have submitted their wealth statements and those of their family members to the EC, The Daily Star has scrutinised the statements of some Awami League contestants and found that all of them have become richer over the last five years, some rather astonishingly. We compared these statements with those submitted by them before the ninth parliamentary polls. We’ve tried to contact the following candidates to know how they’ve made so much money. Most of them didn’t respond. The reporting was done by Pinaki Roy, Hasan Jahid Tusher, Partha Pratim Bhattacharjee, Pankaj Karmakar and Tuhin Shubhra Adhikary.
Abdul Mannan KhanFormer state minister for housing and public works Abdul Mannan Khan and his wife have had their wealth increased by 107 times in the last five years.
The couple had wealth and property worth about Tk 10.33 lakh ahead of the ninth parliamentary elections. According to a statement submitted to the Election Commission this month, they have wealth worth about Tk 11.03 crore.
In the affidavit, he however did not clarify the sources of his money elaborately.
The Daily Star tried to reach him over the phone for more than 10 times and sent him a text to know how he increased his wealth 107 times in just five years, but he did not respond.
The annual income of the former state minister and his wife was Tk 3.85 lakh, of which his wife’s was Tk 2 lakh, before the last polls. But after the elections, their yearly income increased to Tk 3.28 crore, including his wife’s share of Tk 1.76 crore, giving their income a 100-fold rise.
As shown in his latest statement, Mannan earned Tk 1.45 crore while his wife Tk 1.73 crore from miscellaneous sources — fish farms and remittance. But he did not give the details of how much money they had earned from which particular source as wanted in the affidavit form.
WEALTH & PROPERTY
Mannan, an Awami League leader who was elected lawmaker from Dhaka-1 constituency, and his wife had moveable wealth and property including cash, shares, bank deposit, vehicles, gold, electronics and furniture worth around Tk 6.47 lakh in 2008.
This time the couple has declared moveable wealth and property worth Tk 2.15 crore, an increase by 208 times. Interestingly, they have no money in any bank, as per Mannan’s wealth statement.
They had no savings certificates or Fixed Deposit Return (FDR) in 2008, but now they have Tk 50 lakh in savings certificates and FDR.
Mannan and his wife had cash Tk 51,000 and Tk 25,000 respectively before the ninth parliamentary elections. Now they have Tk 40 lakh and Tk 15 lakh respectively, according to the wealth statements.
The AL leader in his previous affidavit mentioned that he and his wife had non-agricultural land worth Tk 2.45 lakh, which has now increased to around Tk 1.96 crore.
They had no apartment, house or building as mentioned in the 2008 wealth statement, but now Mannan has two apartments and one building worth Tk 3.64 crore. They had no fish farms ahead of the last election, but this time they have shown that they own 10 fish farms inherited from their parents.
Mannan in his first year in office maintained a tough stance against land grabbers, but in the following years his position reportedly grew softer.
Mannan Khan was AL’s Office Secretary and its prospective candidate for Dhaka-1 constituency. But AL President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina removed him from the party position this month and gave the seat to a Jatiya Party candidate to contest.
