As soon as this correspondent reached the Mirganj ferry terminal in Babuganj, Barisal, a few curious individuals asked if he was going to the house of Matiur Rahman, a high-ranking government official who has recently become embroiled in controversy due to his massive and unexplained wealth and disappeared from public view.
They were eager to know about the source of his fortune, urging the reporter to thoroughly investigate and ensure that individuals like Matiur did not evade justice.
Matiur, who just recently lost his position as president of the National Board of Revenue's (NBR) Customs, Excise and VAT Appellate Tribunal, only became well-known in the area after his son Mushfiqur Rahman Ifat posted a photo of a sacrificial goat on social media and claimed to have bought it for Tk15 lakh, locals added.
They said they had been unaware that Matiur hailed from Barisal’s Muladi upazila.
“Thanks to the media, Muladi’s name has spread worldwide. However, it would have been better if the upazila had become famous for something good," one of them said.
Matiur Rahman, who was also dismissed from his position as director of the state-owned Sonali Bank, is the son of Hakim Hawladar of Bahadurpur village, Kazirchar union, Muladi.
Hakim Hawladar was chairman of the local union parishad and vice president of the union unit of the BNP.
It is rumoured that Hakim, previously a teacher, served as the UP chairman for nine years thanks to his son Matiur's money.
Matiur is the eldest among three brothers and two sisters. He is said to have been exceptionally talented and studied while staying at his aunt's house in Babuganj.
Delwar Hossain Patwari, convener of Kazirchar BNP, said: "What his son did is not my concern. However, Hakim Hawladar was involved in BNP politics. That is why he was nominated for the chairman post… His middle son, Kaiyum Hawladar, was the joint convenor of the Kazirchar Jubo Dal unit. But Hakim Hawladar was a very good man. That is why the villagers voted for and elected him as chairman. No one has ever raised even the slightest complaint against him."
He mentioned that he knew little about Matiur other than that he was a high-ranking official, adding that he had only seen and heard reports of financial scandals against Matiur in various media outlets.
Keeping distance
Meanwhile, everyone in Matiur's household seems to have clammed up. They do not even want to reveal their identities. Whenever they see a journalist, they walk away. If they are asked to stop and answer some questions, they say they know nothing and quickly leave. The situation is the same with their neighbours.
Several villagers and close relatives of Matiur, on condition of anonymity, said his wealth had begun to accumulate during the BNP rule and his family had not had to look back since then.
Along with him, the fortunes of the people in his village also began to improve, according to them. He had built a two-storey house for himself and a madrasa there, they added.
Upon setting foot on the premises of the house, one sees a large pond with a paved bank. Next, there is a three-storey madrasa and a mosque named after Matiur's father. In the middle of the madrasa and mosque, there is a large minaret. Entering the place through the space under the minaret reveals the two-storey house.
Matiur stayed in that house when he visited the village. The collapsible gate was unlocked only when VIP guests arrived. Most of the time, the building remains locked, according to the madrasa’s teachers.
That is not all; he also established the Hawladar Foundation to carry out various development activities in the area. Through this foundation, he built Rahmania Technical School and BM College, a three-storey cyclone shelter, a mosque, a madrasa, and a clinic. Small bridges, roads and canal embankments were also built. Although these developments were shown under the Hawladar Foundation, funds were sourced from various government institutions, including the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB).
Matiur's younger brother, Kaiyum, oversees all affairs at the house. He also owns a substantial business enterprise in Dhaka and has bought a large building in Muladi. A person familiar with the situation attributed his ownership of these assets to his brother's influence.
Pausing suddenly and changing the subject, the individual said: "We are hearing about what happened in Dhaka through the media. But the villagers believe it is a conspiracy against Matiur and his family because they have no bad reputation in the village."
Meanwhile, villagers said Matiur owned acres upon acres of land in the area, although most were in the names of his siblings and relatives, adding that what he owned directly amounted to very little.
However, like Hakim Hawladar, the villagers also knew Matior as a good person.
After news of his vast wealth spread, they realized how he had accumulated it.
Though they bear ill feelings towards Matiur, they are not expressing them.
Good relationship with former BNP lawmaker
Montu Biswas, the current chairman of Kazirchar union parishad, said: "Every member of Hakim Hawladar's family had a good relationship with BNP leader Mosharraf Hossain Mongu (former Barisal-3 MP). Because of this relationship, Hakim Hawladar was elected chairman when the BNP was in power."
He said he knew little about Matiur, but added that the people at his village home lived off his money.
Montu said various development activities had been carried out with Matiur’s money, most of which had been controversial.
Viral goat
Mushfiqur Rahman Ifat gained attention on social media after posting on Facebook about buying a goat for Eid-ul-Azha for Tk15 lakh. He identified Matiur as his father in some of his posts.
This sparked questions about how an official with a basic monthly salary of Tk78,000 at his grade (grade-1) could afford such an expense.
In a TV interview, however, Matiur denied that Ifat was his son, stating he only had two children—a son and a daughter.
Later, Feni-2 lawmaker Nizam Uddin Hazari claimed on a television program that Ifat was Matiur's son from his second marriage.
Over his 30-year career, Matiur has been investigated multiple times for graft by the Anti-Corruption Commission.
He studied at the Department of Finance of Dhaka University and joined the civil service in 1994 as an officer in the 11th BCS, according to media reports.