Besides, investigation into some other accounts of his family members is going on, official sources said.

Allegations of corruption against Ragib Ali and activities of his institutions are also being probed by Anti Corruption Commission (ACC), a Deputy Director of ACC in Sylhet told The Daily Star yesterday.

The ACC official however declined to give details.

Sources in Bangladesh Bank in Sylhet said investigation into bank accounts of Ragib Ali and his family members and their institutions is going on. All his accounts in Sylhet have been marked as Non Resident Transaction Account (NRTA) and all kinds of transaction are stopped, the source added.

Ali and his family members are involved in institutions like Jalalabad Ragib-Rabeya Medical College and Hospital, Leading University, Ragib Offset Printing Press, daily Sylheter Dak, Malnichhera Tea Garden, Tarapur Tea Garden, Malnichhrea Rubber Garden, Ragib Ali Foundation etc.

The institutions and business concerns Ragib Ali owns include seven tea gardens and a big shopping mall in Syljhet city. He is also a partner in another private university in Dhaka.

Ali also owns a printing press-Ragib Computers--and chief editor and publisher of Sylheter Dak, a widely circulated daily. Ali and his family members are also involved with the South East Bank.

Last year, a case was lodged protesting unauthorised sale of 200 trees from Malnechhera Rubber Garden on Sylhet city suburbs. The rubber garden was raised on lands leased from government.

As locals complained to the Deputy Commissioner, three persons were arrested. Some local newspapers carried stories on the matter but it was hushed up with the help of some political leaders, sources claimed.

Cases are still pending in connection with illegal sale of about 40 acres of land of Tarapur Tea Estate to about 200 individuals by Ali's family. The tea estate covers over 100 acres.

The lands were sold allegedly by preparing fake documents, land officials said.

The buyers have constructed dwelling houses on those plots but could not show proper documents from settlement and survey department during the recently completed land survey.

An official in the settlement department told the Daily Star that the Tarapur Tea Garden is a property of Krishnakanta Gupta Jeur temple and that land of religious institutions can not be sold. So there is no scope to sell or hand over those lands to any individual, he said.

The buyers had been demanding 'porcha' against the plots they bought from the tea garden owners long ago.

“But, since law does not allow such sale, we can not provide them with those documents (porcha), the settlement official added.

Ali took a long term lease of the garden lands from the temple committee in late 1988.

A parliamentary sub-committee visited Sylhet in 1990s and filed a report to the land ministry, which said the tea garden lands were grabbed through corruption.

The lands were sold through fake power of attorney in names of Ali's family members and a good number of cases are still pending in this connection, the settlement official said.

However, the garden authorities claimed that the lands were bought from the temple authorities in a proper way.

The Ragib Rabeya Medical College Hospital was set up on Tarapur Tea Garden lands.

Years ago, in the face of students' agitation, Ragib Ali donated some lands from Tarapur Tea Garden to Madan Mohan College in the name of a new campus of the institution. Later it was revealed that he realised Tk 35 lakh from the college, sources claimed.

In 2001, Ragib Ali along with his men took a move to change the name of his native village Talibpur into Ragibnagar. The move died down in the face of protests by villagers.

Allegations have it that the protesters were later implicated in some false cases.

This triggered fresh protests by the villagers. Several thousand people from the village paraded to the city and handed over a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner to take steps to stop harassment of innocent villagers.

The administration quelled the agitation.