BNP chief Khaleda Zia's youngest son Arafat Rahman Koko being taken to a police vehicle as he fell ill in the CMM's Court yesterday.Photo: STAR

Arafat Rahman Koko, younger son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia, amassed huge fortune allegedly by taking huge bribes in exchange for approvals of deals through the use of influence of his family dynasty.
One such deal included awarding a contract to Global Agro Trade (Private) Company Ltd (GATCO), an indenting house, to run the operations of Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Dhaka. The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) has filed a case in this regard on Sunday implicating Koko, Khaleda and 11 others.
A number of detained key figures of the last BNP-led alliance government revealed during interrogations that Koko had been illegally involved in various telecom deals, ownership of bank shares and large-scale city beautification deals.
Koko had allegedly taken $ 9 million dollars from Warid Telecom for quick approval of its telecom licence, according to the statement of former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar given to investigators a couple of months ago.
Babar in his statement also said Koko and Tony, son of former finance minister Saifur Rahman, took commission from a Chinese company for a telecommunications equipment supply contract.
A central bank investigation found that Mosaddak Ali Falu and his associates including Arafat Rahman Koko illegally purchased shares of IFIC Bank under the
name of a Malaysia-based company violating both Foreign Exchange Regulation Act and Money Laundering Prevention Act.
Back in February, Khaleda Zia's ex-personal secretary AHM Nurul Islam in an interview with the Bangla daily Prothom Alo said Koko lobbied for Global Agro Trade Private Ltd, which in 2004 received the contract to run the Dhaka ICD for seven years.
"But the tender invited by the Chittagong Port Authority in 2003 mentioned that the contract would be awarded for five years only. Interestingly, this company had no previous experience in this field and did not have the necessary machinery to operate an ICD. I remember the former prime minister's son Arafat Rahman visited her several times to lobby for the company before the purchase committee made its decision. The purchase committee had once rejected the proposal, but through intensive lobbying, the proposal was raised in the purchase committee again and the contract was approved," Nurul Islam said on record.
Between 2001 and 2006, Koko's business firm Advance Ad secured nearly 80 percent market share of the Tk 150-crore-a-year outdoor advertisement business sector by capturing the most lucrative advertisement spots owned by government agencies in the city. Advance Ad has been closed since January.
All throughout the tenure of the last BNP-led government, the government agencies including Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) did not dare to risk the repercussions and silently catered to Koko's whim.
Due to Koko's flagrant violation of DCC rules and regulations, for instance, not paying spot rental for billboards on time, the DCC earned only Tk 70 lakh in revenue during the years 2004 and 2005 against its target revenue of Tk 30 crore for the period.
Advance Ad did a brisk business when a massive city beautification project was undertaken in the capital in the run-up to the 2005 Saarc Summit. Under the facelift project, Koko's firm bagged numerous billboards, unipoles and neon signs along the VIP road from Zia International Airport to Bangla Motor intersection where many noticeable spots such as Mohakhali Rail Crossing, Shaheed Jahangir Gate, Bijoy Sarani and Farmgate are located.
A number of outdoor ad firms alleged that Koko pulled rank on the DCC, Roads and Highways and Bangladesh Railway to cancel the advertisement deals with other agencies before the Saarc beautification started in late 2003.
They said the DCC had removed all billboards along the Airport Road only to hand over the spaces to Advance Ad as well as to a few other small advertisement firms.
Advance Ad charges clients as high as Tk 10 lakh per year, disregarding the government rates of Tk 50 per square foot of advertisement on a private property and Tk 150 per square foot ad on a government property.
According to the rates set by Advance Ad, its income from the Airport Road alone should be around Tk 30 crore a year, said an industry insider.
Koko is also reported to have benefited from monopolising advertisements on Bangladesh Television (BTV), the sole state-owned television channel. BTV reportedly bent its rules to allot one hour of its peak time from 8:30pm to 9:30pm for commercials to Ad Media, an enterprise of Advanced Ad.
Koko also held the chairman post of Development Committee of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). Furthermore, despite having no prior experience, he was a member of BCB's advisory group. It is alleged that he controlled BCB affairs, including ticket sales for international matches, by pulling the strings from behind.
Sources at the BCB said Koko had used his posts for huge financial gains during the renovation work of Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla Stadium.
Koko is also reported to have been involved in the initiative to prepare machine-readable passports and the management handover of Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong.