General public up in arms over embezzlement of crores of taka by cooperative society in Jamalpur's Madarganj

General public are up in arms over the embezzlement of crores of taka by a cooperative society in Jamalpur's Madarganj. Enraged clients put a garland of shoes on municipal Jamaat Ameer Mokaddes, marched with him, and handed him over to the police at noon today, Saturday, on charges of fraud. Three others were also detained and handed over to the police along with him. The angry crowd claimed that Mokaddes and his associates collected crores of taka from clients in the name of various cooperative societies and embezzled it.

Not only that, clients allege that over the past four to five days, through an ongoing process, several important documents are being made to disappear and altered to be kept separately so that in the future the owners can declare bankruptcy and personally embezzle their assets. In particular, allegations have been raised of trying to erase the affiliation of the 'Al-Aqaba' cooperative from the name, ownership, and management structure of an institution run in the name of the discussed Al-Aqaba Multipurpose Cooperative Society—'Shah Jamal Hospital' in Jamalpur district—and register it under a new name.

A local client said, right before our eyes, an official of the Madarganj Cooperative Office has changed the documents, erasing the name of Al-Aqaba and separating the ownership of the hospital. Victims have claimed that some officials of the cooperative office are also involved in this process of fraud. In their words, “Attempts are being made to convert the societies into private ownership by hiding and deleting documents.”

Notably, there are allegations against 23 cooperative societies in Jamalpur of embezzling about Tk 1,500 crore from more than 35,000 clients. Among the most discussed societies are—Al-Aqaba, Shatodal, Swadesh, Nobodip, Holy Target, and Rongdhonu.