Dhaka, (Asian independent) Amid rejection by a High Court (HC) bench of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, the Opposition leader Kamal Hossain has submitted more than 8 million Bangladesh Taka (BDT) after the country’s anti-tax watchdog found him hiding a staggering 80 per cent of his yearly income.
Following the submission, lawyers on behalf of Hossain filed a fresh writ in the High Court on Tuesday.
Hossain was the Prime Ministerial face of the Islamist Opposition alliance during the last Parliament polls in 2018.
Drawing flak from the HC last week, Hossain’s lawyers issued verbal confirmation about paying 10 per cent tax on the concealed amount with the Tax Tribunal that already found him guilty of dodging taxes over 80 per cent of total undisclosed income in 2018-19.
Meanwhile, the HC bench issued a rule asking the respondents to explain in one week as to why the decision of the tribunal rejecting an appeal against the Income Tax department’s assessment that imposed Tk 60.98 million as tax for the law firm in 2018-2019 tax year should not be declared illegal.
It also directed to maintain the status quo for three months on the decision passed by the Taxes Appellate Tribunal, thanks to an investigation by the country’s anti-tax watchdog.
Kamal’s law firm has barely disclosed five per cent of his actual annual earnings in his tax returns in the year he was projected as the face of the anti-Awami alliance of Islamist pro- Pakistan parties during the national elections.
Kamal’s firm disclosed only Taka 1,04,03,495 as his annual earnings, but the bank account shows his actual earnings as Taka 20,11,04,219, according to an investigation by the National Board of Revenue.
The bank accounts of Kamal & Associates have come under scanner for these “shady financial transactions” as Kamal Hossain failed to prove his claims of innocence in the tax tribunal.
It further says his firm is supposed to pay Taka 6,09,85,351 as income tax, but has actually paid only Taka 76,41,548.
The source of this considerable income which Kamal Hossain allegedly concealed is also under probe.
Though, announcement on final verdict is set for this week, an earlier bench ruled Kamal Hossain’s plea on the evasion of 60 million BDT, as the appeal violated certain legal rules that one should comply with.
While hailed as a “revered jurist” by his ardent followers, Kamal earned notoriety of a classic face of double standard as the octogenarian leader conveniently chose to cobble an alliance between Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat in the last election.
Kamal Hossain long eyewash as ‘Pro-liberation activist’ as a part of Awami League ended when his Gano Forum party stitched an alliance with the Pakistan-paid Islamist opposition in 2000.
The Pakistan-based Islamist coalition was involved in large-scale smuggling of arms and ammunitions of ULFA, as evident from the court verdict of the 2004 seizure of ten truckloads of arms and ammunitions, which was that the weapons and ammunition were smuggled in for United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) with the backing from the then BNP-Jamaat alliance government, was indeed a deliberate state policy of the then BNP-Jamaat government of Bangladesh, said Former BNP-Jamaat Government’s Energy Advisor and BNP ideologue Mahmudur Rahman.
Jamaat-e-Islami Chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, former State Home Minister Lutfozzaman Babar and two senior officials of the National Security Intelligence have been accused in high-profile cases.
Leader of the Indian separatist outfit ULFA, Paresh Barua is also accused in two cases filed under the Arms Act and Special Powers Act for smuggling of arms.
After further probe, 50 people were charged in the arms case and 52 people in the smuggling case. As many as 265 people were made witnesses in both the cases.
On April 2, 2004, early morning, the Chittagong Police had seized 10 trucks of weapons and ammunition from the state-owned Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Limited jetty in Chittagong while those were being offloaded from the ship of Q.C. Shipping, owned by the family of Pakistan-paid war criminal and BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury.
Around 1,500 wooden boxes containing submachine guns, AK-47 assault rifles, submachine carbines, Chinese pistols, rocket shells and launchers, hand grenades and bullets were seized.
The seizure of the huge cache of arms had triggered widespread uproar with the death penalty to 14 people, Motiur Rahman Nizami and Lutfozzaman Babar for smuggling 10 truckloads of firearms in 2004.
The 14 convicts were also given life term imprisonment in another case filed for possessing illegal firearms.
Pakistan-paid Jamaat Islami Secretary General Nizami was executed on May 11, 2016, after the Supreme Court upheld his death penalty for committing crimes against humanity during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971.
Motiur Rahman Nizami recently admitted that allowing 10 trucks full of military grade arms to pass through Bangladesh for the Assamese separatist group ULFA, pro-pakistan 1971 war crime campaigners, Bergman’s blog activities reflected his desperate attempts to support the war criminals; majority are top Jamaat Islami Pakistan-paid leaders evade justice.
Moreover, his offshore outlet ‘Netra News’, ceaselessly peddling lies; projecting million toll due to Covid-19 outbreak against Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her family members.
The selection of Bergman to become the editor of Netra News clearly presents the question of conflict of interest and ceaseless smear campaigns against Hasina and her family members by the outlet pointed out Pakistan agenda aligned with his father-in-law Kamal, who vowed to bring down Hasina.
