Hasnat Questions the Source of Salahuddin’s Wealth, Demands Transparent Accounting

Hasnat Abdullah, Member of Parliament for the Comilla-4 constituency and leader of the Jatiya Nagorik Party (NCP), has raised questions regarding the extent and source of Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed's wealth. In a Facebook post on Friday (October 2), he cited past corruption cases and demanded the disclosure of a transparent and verifiable account of the minister's assets.

In his post, Hasnat claimed that the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had filed a case against Salahuddin Ahmed in 2007, accusing him of accepting a bribe of Tk 1 crore. The following year, a special court in Dhaka sentenced him to seven years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Tk 1 crore in that case; contemporary reports also confirm this verdict.

He further noted that in 2008, Salahuddin Ahmed was sentenced to 13 years in prison in another case involving the accumulation of illegal wealth and the concealment of asset information. Hasnat also highlighted two cases related to fish enclosures in Chakaria. The post acknowledged that Salahuddin Ahmed was subsequently acquitted in some of these cases.

According to Hasnat, these past cases had been characterized by Salahuddin Ahmed and the BNP as acts of political harassment. Drawing a parallel with the current practice of scrutinizing individuals' bank accounts, he questioned whether the assets of MPs and ministers would also undergo regular review in the interest of state transparency.

Hasnat also questioned the volume of assets held by Salahuddin Ahmed and his family. Citing data from election affidavits, he claimed that the combined assets of the Salahuddin-Hasina couple stood at approximately Tk 6.30 crore in 2008, rose to Tk 12.70 crore in 2018, and reached nearly Tk 30 crore by 2025.

Hasnat questioned the source of this wealth accumulation following the transition from government service to politics and asked whether there was a transparent and verifiable explanation for it. He also raised questions regarding property in Gulshan, the cost of his children's education abroad, and the source of funds transferred overseas. These statements represent Hasnat's claims; the relevant information has not been independently verified. Towards the end of the post, he demanded that the bank accounts of the close relatives of ministers and MPs also be regularly scrutinized, alongside those of the officials themselves. He added that if such an initiative were to be undertaken, it could begin with his own accounts.