Henry: From a teacher to owner of Tk 102.18 cr

Special Correspondent: Jannat Ara Talukder Henry, who was a general school teacher an era ago, is now owner of the mountain of assets worth around Tk 102.18 crore that creates wonder to all.
Being a MohilaAwami League leader, her wealth has increased 2108.84 times in less than 12 years.
Though, there is no visible business, but an invisible magic, Jannat Ara Talukder Henry, joint general secretary of the Bangladesh MohilaAwami League and member of Sirajganj district Awami League has amassed huge amount of wealth inillegal means in the last 12 years. Not only that, she has become the best taxpayer in the Bogura Tax region. Though, several written allegations were submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) many times demanding investigation to find out her sources of income, the ACC remains silent due to unknown reason, many claimed.
According to the latest income tax return submitted to the authorities concerned in 2021, Jannat Ara Talukder Henry, also the main among other accused of Hallmark scandal of Sonali Bank, is now owner of Tk 102.18 crore assets.
After reviewing the income and expenditure account of Jannat Ara Talukder Henry, it is learnt that, she was an assistant teacher of a local school. She took part in the ninth parliamentary election on December 29 in 2008 with boat symbol.
At that time, in the affidavit given to the Election Commission (EC), she showed her total earningsat Tk 4,84,500. In the income tax return given by Henry in 2021, the amount of total assets has been shown at about Tk 102.18 crore. As per the statistics, her wealth has been increased 2108.84 times in the last 12 years. At the time, she said, she and her husband-Shamim TalukderLabu had worked together on various tenders. In fact,shewas only an advisor to a Chinese company. Both the husband and wife did not participate in any infrastructural or technical tenders and even didn’t get any job of high salary.
But, shewas a listed music artist on Bangladesh Television. She also received Tk 1.75 lakh from there as honorarium in a year.
While contacted, a senior BTV officialon condition of anonymitysaid that, no artist of Bangladesh Television can get such big amount of honorarium in a year. Besides, Jannat Ara Talukdar Henry issuch a category of artist in which she can get an artist honorarium of maximum Tk 20,000 a year.
It is learned that, Henry was a teacher at SabujKanon High School in Sirajganj. In 2009,she was appointed as a member of the Board of Directors of Sonali Bank. Then everything got changed. She turned into multimillionaire magical means. She became owner of a large amount of money as well as owner of luxury car-house and social status overnight. Henry’s overnight rise left the Sirajganj people in a daze.
Henry’s father house was at KoddarMorh of Sirajganj Sadarupazila. Her father was also a schoolteacher. She was married off to Shamim TalukderLabu, son of former district AwamiLeague president late MotaharHossain Talukder.
Her husband Labu has a license as contractor, but he is not currently working on it. He is involved with various lobbies. There are also allegations that, Henry’s husband and daughter MuntahaHridoy have huge sums of money in their accounts.
Meanwhile, Jannat Ara Talukder Henry has become the best taxpayer of Bogra region in the fiscal year 2020-21. She became selected tax payer in FY 2020-21 by whitening the black money of about Tk 32.50 crore, sources said.
Her rise got prominence, while she became a member of the board of directors of Sonali Bank. In a short span of time, she amassed mountain like assets.
As the joint general secretary of the Central MohilaAwami League and a member of the Sirajganj District Awami League, she spread influence in the area and grabbed one after another government Khas land and privately owned land in various places. Shegrabbed the lands with fake documents, many victims said.
Meanwhile, a victim named Md. Abdus Salam Khan submitted a complaint with the Sirajganj SadarUpazila Land Officer in this regard.
Many district AL leaders and activists also expressed grave concern over her sudden rise of wealth. They urged the ACC to form a probe body to investigate into the matter and take necessary action.
While this correspondent tried to contact with her over cell phone for a comment in this regard, she did not response.