/ Bodi: Yaba overlord’s reign of terror

Former Awami League MP Abdur Rahman Bodi pulled all the strings in the murky world of Cox’s Bazar. His name surfaced in at least five intelligence reports, each painting a darker picture of his involvement in yaba trade and smuggling.
Allegedly, Bodi wove a web of influence, enlisting his five brothers, personal aide Mong Mong Sen, and former Teknaf upazila chairman Zafar Ahmed to spread the drugs across the nation and engage in other illicit activities. The true extent of their operations remains shrouded in secrecy.
Zafar was one of the linchpins in Bodi’s shadowy empire. His role was pivotal, a cog in the dark machinery that kept Bodi’s operations running smoothly.
As Zafar sought re-election in May, tension flared up in the area. Bodi, in a brazen display of power, fired warning shots at supporters of Zafar’s opponent, Nurul Alam, president of Teknaf Jubo League. Bodi used an MP sticker on his car during the campaign, flouting the rules with impunity.
The Anti-Corruption Commission recently seized Zafar’s assets worth around Tk 4 crore, reportedly amassed through yaba trade. The Rapid Action Battalion arrested Zafar in Dhaka on October 31.
He has more than 12 cases against him, including on drugs and illegal arms charges.
After his arrest, RAB-15 Senior Assistant Director (Legal and Media) Md Kamruzzaman said, “Former MP Bodi turned Teknaf into a safe haven for drug traders, smugglers, kidnappers, extortionists, and killers over the past 17 years. And Zafar is said to be the right hand of Bodi in his world of crimes.”
Like Zafar, many listed yaba smugglers in Teknaf and Ukhiya are reportedly controlled and blessed by Bodi, known as the kingpin of drug lords of Cox’s Bazar.
One of the major indemnities he arranged for the yaba lords was the surrender of 123 smugglers of Teknaf in two phases.
He allegedly rehabilitated his family members, relatives, and close aides through the surrendering arrangements.
Each of the self-confessed yaba godfathers was out of jail after one and a half years.
Despite being accused of leading such a big network, he has not yet faced any coordinated investigation by government agencies.
This exemption made him the most powerful person of Teknaf and Ukhiya over the last 15 year.
NO DRUG CHARGES
During the BNP-led alliance government’s tenure, four cases were filed against Bodi on charges of murder, rape, and repression of women while he was the mayor of Teknaf municipality.
All those lawsuits were withdrawn as “politically motivated cases” during the term of the AL government after Bodi became a ruling party lawmaker.
During the army-backed caretaker government, the ACC filed a case with Double Mooring Police Station in Chattogram on December 17, 2007 against Bodi on charges of amassing wealth of Tk 66.7 lakh beyond known source of income.
The charge sheet in that case has been submitted and witness deposition is almost complete. The case is now pending with the court of Senior Special Metropolitan Sessions Judge in Chattogram, said Sanwar Hossain Lavlu, ACC public prosecutor in Chattogram.
For the delay in the trial, he blamed the absence of a judge in this court, appeals pending with the High Court and the Appellate Division, and the Covid-19 pandemic.
His name appeared on a list of suspected yaba smugglers, prepared by the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) in 2014. However, the agency did not go ahead with the investigation.
“We cannot file a case against a person who amassed illegal assets. We can only take action against the person who is arrested with any kind of drugs,” said Sirajul Mostafa, assistant Director of Cox’s Bazar DNC.
On November 2, 2016, a Dhaka court sentenced Bodi to three years in prison for “concealing” and “deliberately” providing false wealth statements to the ACC in March 2014.
He was also fined Tk 10 lakh, in default of which he will have to spend three more months in jail.
He landed in jail but came out after securing bail from the High Court.
ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star that the case is still pending with the High Court.
In December 2017, the DNC sent the ACC a list of 141 yaba godfathers, including Bodi and his family members, requesting probe into their wealth, several DNC officials said.
The ACC had indeed started investigating the wealth of Bodi’s brothers, nephew, cousin, and cousin’s wife, but not the former MP.
Reaz Uddin, an assistant director of ACC’s integrated office in  Cox’s Bazar, told the correspondent that the inquiries against Bodi’s brothers Abdur Shukkur, Mubibur Rahman, uncle Md Islam, nephew Nipu and some others were still underway.
‘MAFIA’
Bodi was elected MP from Cox’s Bazar-4 (Ukhiya-Teknaf) constituency in the 9th and 10th parliamentary elections as an AL candidate.
The party nominated his wife Shaheen Akhter in the 11th and 12th national polls as he was convicted in a corruption case. She was elected MP in both elections.
Though Shaheen was the MP, Bodi acted as a “shadow king” in the constituency, according to local politicians. They said Bodi’s network of criminals also included human traffickers, extortionists, and illegal remittance channel operators.
After the AL was ousted on August 5, Bodi was arrested by the Rapid Action Battalion from Chattogram’s GEC area on August 20 in a case over vandalism and looting of Teknaf BNP leader Mohammad Abdullah’s businesses.
Abdullah, finance secretary of Cox’s Bazar district BNP, said, Bodi had filed at least 50 cases against him. “My elderly father was picked up from our home and tortured at the police station on his instruction,” he said. 
“Many politicians of other parties had taken advantage from and compromised with Bodi. But I didn’t. That’s why he was angry with me.
“He is a mafia. He smuggled yaba and arms into the country,” the BNP leader added.
Abdullah alleged Bodi closed the legal cattle corridor from Myanmar and smuggled cows through hilly bordering areas to establish a monopoly in the business.
Bodi also controlled the Teknaf Port through his relative Omar Faruq and bought hundreds of acres of land in the name of Faruq and many of his close aides, according to the BNP leader.
“I have video footage where Bodi is ordering his goons to set my petrol pump on fire. In the footage, he is seen shooting with a gun at my business centre. However, police didn’t recover the gun and completed the remand at the jail gates,” Abdullah said.
He alleged a conspiracy was still going on to let Bodi get out despite many serious allegations against him.
Faruq could not be contacted for comments on the allegations made by Abdullah since the former is reportedly in hiding.
UNRESTRAINED YABA TRADE
Despite Bodi and many of the drug lords in jail or hiding, yaba trade is still going on unrestrained in Teknaf.
Some of his close aides were trying to blend in with the supporters of other political parties, said locals who wished not to be named.
Two of Bodi’s accomplices, Md Moniruzzaman and Enamul Haque of Teknaf, are roaming freely in Teknaf. 
The ACC in recent months seized Moniruzzaman’s wealth worth around Tk 4.16 crore and Enamul’s Tk 35 lakh, allegedly earned through yaba trade.
According to the district police, around 80 lakh yaba pills and 32 kg of crystal meth were recovered in Cox’s Bazar this year until September.
The hauls recovered last year totalled over 1.5 crore yaba pills and 78 kg of crystal meth.