ASP sent to jail in Home Adviser signature forgery case

A court has ordered Additional Superintendent of Police (temporarily suspended) Shahabuddin Ahmed to be sent to jail in a case filed over fraud and forgery, including forging the signature of former Home Adviser Jahangir Alam Chowdhury to create fake approval letters for cattle imports.

Shahabuddin Ahmed surrendered before the court of Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Zakir Hossain on Monday and sought bail. After the hearing, the court rejected his bail petition and ordered him sent to jail.

According to the case documents, the fraud involved a plan to import five lakh cattle from Myanmar through the Shahparir Dwip corridor in Cox's Bazar, which had been suspended since 2019. During the interim government, businessman Alauddin Robin sought approval for resuming imports and contacted Khorshed Alam, an official at a private bank and brother of a joint secretary at the Prime Minister's Office.

Khorshed assured Alauddin of securing approval, claiming high-level government connections. Alauddin was later given an approval letter with the former Home Adviser's recommendation and signature for importing five lakh cattle. However, when he went to the Home Ministry to verify, he learned no such application had been filed there.

The case was filed with Pallabi Police Station in Dhaka. After investigation, a charge sheet was submitted against five people. The investigation found that a gang tried to swindle a large sum by creating fake applications, approval letters and agreements in the name of securing government approval.

The investigating officer, CID Inspector Abul Kalam, said in the report that on March 2, 2025, an application regarding permission to renew or operate a BOP cattle shed under the 22 Border Guard Battalion in Kurigram was first sent from a WhatsApp number used by Shahabuddin Ahmed to Jafar Iqbal alias Ranga. The document bore the recommendation and signature of the Home Adviser. It later reached Alauddin through Khorshed Alam.

The investigation also found that on March 19, a fake order bearing the signature of Tajina Sarwar, Deputy Secretary of Border-3 Branch of the Public Security Division, was sent from Shahabuddin's number to Jafar Iqbal. The WhatsApp number used by Shahabuddin was registered under the name of one Hazrat Ali, who has multiple fraud cases filed against him at various police stations. Investigators claimed Shahabuddin used SIMs registered under other names to hide his identity and exchanged fake documents via WhatsApp.

The investigation confirmed that the signatures used in these documents did not match genuine signatures and were proven to be forged. The signatures of the relevant deputy secretary were also found to be forged.