The Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism has sent a letter to Biman Bangladesh Airlines, directing it to investigate allegations of irregularities and corruption against the airline’s Director of Procurement and Logistic Support, Md Rashedul Karim, and take action.
The same letter also instructs to investigate the allegation of not recognising his wife and child from a second marriage and take necessary action. The allegation from his second wife is that, despite repeated requests for spousal status and paternal recognition of the child, Rashedul Karim is not heeding them.
He also serves as Biman’s cargo director.
Sources at Biman Bangladesh Airlines state that an intelligence agency recently submitted a report to the ministry regarding Rashedul Karim’s irregularities and corruption. Taking the intelligence agency’s information into account, the ministry sent a letter to Biman Bangladesh Airlines on 23 December.
The letter, signed by Senior Assistant Secretary of the Ministry, Shakila Parvin, outlines several allegations of irregularities and corruption.
On 1 October, Biman flight BG-605 was used to provide ID tickets for two junior cargo staff members, namely Commercial Supervisor Muntasir Rahman and KM Shahjalal, and flight BG-227 was used by Cargo Director Rashedul Karim along with his family to travel to Sylhet and stay there for four days.
Despite an internal shortage of revenue tickets within Biman during the Puja holidays, Rashedul Karim pressured the domestic manager of Biman to arrange ID tickets for the aforementioned two staff members and himself.
Subsequently, the manager was forced to offload revenue passengers in order to make the arrangement for the aforementioned two staff members, Rashedul, and approximately a dozen members of Rashedul Karim’s family.
The offloading of revenue passengers to provide ID tickets to airline employees is a serious offense.
Each Biman employee is entitled to a maximum of 20 free ID tickets per year only if there are empty seats on the plane due to a lack of revenue passengers.
The letter further states that, during that trip, 11 or 12 individuals, using references from Sylhet’s station manager, stayed for 4 days in a flat rented for Tk3,500 per day, with total daily costs averaging around Tk5,000 per day.
These individuals left without paying the expenses. According to sources, their expenses are being borne by Biman employees in Sylhet. Additionally, there are allegations of roster trading against him while he served as director (cargo) for Biman.
Regarding the issue of his second marriage, Rashedul Karim married a woman named Mousumi Akter Lima at the marriage registrar’s office in Khilkhet on 24 January 2024, with a marriage settlement of five lakh and one taka. The couple has a son.
When the woman, after a significant amount of time in which the marriage did not receive recognition from Rashedul, stated she would come out publicly, Rashedul Karim had her threatened through various individuals.
On 30 November, Mousumi Akter Lima filed a written complaint with the Biman authorities for legal action against the actual perpetrator based on investigation into this matter and for recognition of the child.
Based on this, the ministry has stated that legal action can be taken after investigating the matter.
