The recent legal dispute among family members of Transcom Group, one of Bangladesh's prominent business conglomerates, has drawn widespread attention.
Following three cases filed by Shahzreh Huq, the daughter of the founder of the company, the late Latifur Rahman, the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) arrested five high-ranking officials of the company.
Shahzreh Huq has sued her elder sister, Transcom Group CEO Simeen Rahman, and mother, Shahnaz Rahman, chairman of the group, and Simeen's son Zaraif Ayaat Hossain, Transcom's head of transformation, for trying to embezzle assets worth around Tk10,000 crore using fake documents. She has also named other officials in the cases.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the three family members of the plaintiff are absconding.
Simeen Rahman's mobile number has been switched off since 7pm on February 20, while Shahnaz Rahman's mobile phone has been switched off since 5:30pm on February 22.
On Friday, the PBI arrested Transcom Group Legal Advisor Fakhruzzaman Bhuiyan, Director (Corporate Finance) Kamrul Hasan, Director (Corporate Finance) Abdullah Al Mamun, Manager Abu Yousuf Mohammad Siddique and Assistant Company Secretary Mohammad Mosaddek.
They were granted bail by a Dhaka court in all cases on the same day.
However, the court set a bail condition that they would have to surrender their passports.
Later on Sunday, the court issued arrest warrants for the accused as they failed to comply with the order.
In this regard, PBI chief Additional IGP Banaj Kumar Majumder said: "Cases have been filed and action will be taken according to law. It does not matter who the accused is or what the identity of the accused is. Whatever the law says will be implemented against them.”
A source said they are carrying out raids to arrest the accused.
Those involved in the investigation believe that the absconding accused are still in Bangladesh.
Officials, however, are still working with immigration offices to check if they have left the country. They said letters would be sent to all immigration points in the country.
First case
In the first case, Shahzreh Huq said her father died on July 1, 2020. He possessed 23,600 shares of Transcom Limited throughout his life.
“I and other the heirs are the owners of my father's shares according to Islamic law. Simeen Rahman with the help of the accused Transcom officials made three Form 117 (transfer deeds) and other important share transfer papers on different dates and times without the knowledge of my brother Arshad Waliur Rahman and me, to illegally transfer more shares to her name,” reads the case documents.
She said that after Latifur Rahman’s death, Director (Corporate Finance) Kamrul Hasan, submitted the forged papers to the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms. To benefit from Simeen Rahman, Assistant Company Secretary Mohammad Mosaddek and Manager Abu Yousuf Mohammad Siddique signed the forged papers as witnesses.
The case statement further added that the accused forged the signatures of Shahzreh Huq, her father and her brother to sign Form 117.
“After the death of my father, Transcom Group Legal Advisor Fakhruzzaman Bhuiyan on March 23 last year and later Kamrul Hasan on May 14 told me that Latifur Rahman handed over the shares to me and my siblings.
“Later, I collected the documents for the transfer of shares from Joint Stock Companies and Firms. According to the online documents, on June 13, 2020, my father gave me 4,270 shares, my brother Arshad Waliur Rahman 4,270 shares and Simeen Rahman 14,160 shares. The document was signed by Kamrul Hasan,” Shahzreh Huq said in the case statement.
"At no time did I or my brother sign those documents. My father also never signed the transfer deed in his lifetime. The accused forged our signatures and grabbed the shares without distributing them among the heirs according to Sharia,” she added.
Second case
In the statement of the second case, Shahzreh Haque said: "I and others are the heirs of all my father's movable and immovable properties according to Islamic law.
“Simeen Rahman and Shahnaz Rahman, with the help of accused Fakhruzzaman Bhuiyan and Zaraif Ayaat Hossain, made the deed of settlement through forgery to grab the shares and positions of Transcom Group, established by my father.”
She accused them of forging her, her father's and her brother’s signature here as well.
“The accused also forged the signatures of my two sons Zoheb Asrar Huq and Mikail Iman Huq and signed the witness column of the deed of settlement.
"The accused executed a fake deed of settlement using dishonest means to take over the property left by my father, which is estimated to be worth Tk10,000 crore or more," the case statement read.
She said she first came to know about the existence of the deed of settlement from Fakhruzzaman Bhuiyan and Kamrul Hasan when there was no progress on the inheritance certificate on May 14 last year.
When they were asked to provide a copy of the deed, they refused to do so. In the meantime, the accused had filed a case in the court using the so-called deed of settlement and withdrew it after a week.
Shahzreh also alleged that Fakhruzzaman Bhuiyan was promoted to the company's executive director in 2021 as a “reward for his misdeeds.”
Kamrul Hasan was also illegally appointed as a director of the company in 2023. He later purchased 100 shares from Shahnaz Rahman at face value, which is illegal.
Third case
In the third case statement, Shahzreh said her had father left over Tk100 crore with different banks and Shahnaz Rahman was the nominee trustee.
Shahzreh claimed that the money was supposed to be distributed among the heirs according to Sharia after Latifur's death.
She claimed that Shahnaz Rahman and Simeen Rahman transferred all of that money to their accounts with the help of other accused.
Later, Shahnaz Rahman grabbed 18% of shares of Transcom Limited from Transcom Electronics in her name on the pretext of buying it for Tk60 crore.
Shahnaz Rahman later donated the shares to Simeen Rahman.
