During the fiscal years 2023 and 2024, wheat worth Tk4,000 crore was imported from Russia, all of which was of poor quality and purchased at prices higher than the market rate. Since 2022, a total of 11 lakh tons of wheat has been imported to benefit several businessmen close to former Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder.

Before Sadhan Chandra, Kamrul Islam served as Food Minister. In 2015, during his tenure, low-quality, pest-infested wheat was imported from Brazil. After widespread criticism, that same year the government raised the minimum protein standard for wheat from 11.5% to 12.5%. However, after Sadhan Chandra Majumder became Food Minister in 2022, the standard was again reduced to 11.5%, effectively allowing the import of inferior wheat. Allegedly, this decision was made to benefit two businessmen close to him.

According to nutritionists, when wheat protein levels are at 11.5%, moisture content increases, encouraging the growth of bacteria and other harmful organisms. Such wheat, if stored in silos, becomes extremely harmful to human health within a year. Consuming flour from this wheat can lead to vision loss, cancer, and various other diseases.

A memorandum from the Ministry of Food’s Foreign Procurement Division, dated March 20, 2022, stated that based on the opinion of the Bangladesh National Nutrition Council, the minimum protein content for imported wheat was reduced from 12.5% to 11.5%. At that time, nutritionists across the country protested the decision. From 2015 onward, the ministry had been importing wheat with 12.5% protein, but this policy was changed under Sadhan Chandra to benefit his associates.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the recommended protein level in wheat should be between 12% and 18%. Consuming wheat or wheat-based products with less protein increases the risk of malnutrition-related health problems.

In April this year, the Directorate General of Food signed a contract with Grain Flour DMCC to purchase wheat at $280 per ton. However, according to FAO’s monthly food commodity price report that same month, the international market price for Russian wheat was $202 per ton. Even after adding shipping and other costs, the price should not have exceeded $220 per ton. Yet the Directorate paid $280 per ton, $60 higher than the fair price.

Ministry sources reveal that after Sadhan Chandra Majumder took office in 2019, the Russian company Prodintorg obtained the exclusive right to supply wheat to Bangladesh under government-to-government (G2G) imports. Normally, G2G imports exclude middlemen, but in this case, National Electric Group, a fuel-supply company, was given the role of intermediary. Its chairman, Miah Sattar, and his brother, Managing Director Amiruzzaman Sohel, are known to be close to Sadhan Chandra Majumder.

Various media outlets have raised questions about the role of these two brothers in government wheat purchases. The involvement of third parties in G2G imports is a violation of public procurement law. Nevertheless, the Food Ministry under Sadhan Chandra did not respond to these allegations.

Not only in government imports, but also in private sector wheat imports during Sadhan Chandra’s tenure, the brothers’ company received preferential treatment. Just before the fall of the Awami League government on 5 August, their other company, RD Global, was awarded two consecutive international tenders from the Directorate of Food to import about 100,000 tons of wheat.

A review of RD Global’s ownership documents shows that Amiruzzaman Sohel is one of the owners. The company’s registered address is the same as that of National Electric Group—House No. 28, Road No. DOHS, Mohakhali. RD Global also represents Dubai-based Grain Flour DMCC in Bangladesh. Through these arrangements, it is estimated that Sadhan profited by at least 5 billion taka from importing low-quality wheat at inflated prices. Reportedly, he received a commission of 20–25% on these contracts.

This commission system was first introduced by Sadhan in his constituency. Contractors were required to pay a 20% cut to the Sadhan syndicate for all road development, construction, and repair projects. Any attempt to pay less risked retaliation. Recently, road projects worth Tk1,120 crore were initiated in areas including Atrai, Badalgachhi, Mohadevpur, and Naogaon, where Sadhan’s syndicate allegedly collected a 20% commission in advance. Other projects—such as land offices, fire stations, model mosques, indigenous cultural centers, hospital expansions, police stations and barracks, judge court extensions, training centers, and food warehouses—worth another Tk 500–600 crore also reportedly involved similar commissions.

Locals claim that no official document could move without Sadhan Chandra’s approval. From public construction, road works, recruitment, and school-college management committees to land grabbing and market regulation, his consent was required everywhere.

Markets across the district were leased at nominal rates to his associates. His group also built substandard disaster-resilient houses. Moreover, the syndicate had plans to profit massively from large projects like the construction of central storage depots (CSDs) and an economic zone in Sapahar, Naogaon. Members of his syndicate had already secured ownership of most of the land through advance purchase agreements, intending to resell it to the government at higher prices. However, political upheavals thwarted these plans.

Former Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder has now been shown arrested in a case involving over Tk 2,5 crore in undeclared wealth. The court later ordered him to be sent to jail.

On 19 December, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case against him, accusing him of illegally amassing Tk25.34 crore in assets. According to case documents, there were unusual transactions amounting to Tk 43.04 crore in his bank accounts.