Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) leader Srijan Ghosh Sajeeb was arrested over the abduction of a bKash agent in May last year and spent more than five months behind bars. He was subsequently suspended from the ruling party student front.
But he has been given the post of an organising secretary in the BCL’s central committee announced on Monday.
Sajeeb, BCL’s former deputy sports affairs secretary, was arrested from Dhaka University’s Jagannath Hall along with four other BCL activists when they were allegedly taking ransom after kidnapping the bKash agent.
Like him, many others who were suspended from the student front in the past for their involvement in criminal activities, have made it to the Chhatra League’s new committee.
BCL’s former deputy secretary Abdul Bashet Galib, who was arrested with firearms and did time in prison, has been made a vice president. Sakib Hasan Swim, former general secretary of the Chhatra League’s Dhaka College unit, is also a new BCL vice president.
Swim was suspend from the organisation in 2013 after he was named as one of the main accused in the murder of a Dhaka College student who was killed in a clash between two Chhatra League factions.
Asked about giving posts to leaders with criminal records, BCL President Saifur Rahman Sohag said: “We have thoroughly checked everyone’s background before placing them in the committee. No controversial persons have been given posts.”
The new committee has 301 members although the BCL’s constitution says the committee should not exceed 251 members. Sohag said they would reform the constitution soon in this regard, while Secretary General SM Jakir Hossain reasoned: “Having too many leaders made us extend the committee.”
However, several BCL leaders claimed they were left in the cold even though they were dedicated to the organisation. They alleged that they were left out as they supported former joint secretary Shamsul Kabir Rahat and former president Mahmud Hasan Ripon.
