Customs official Matiur Rahman, who has been in the limelight over the controversy surrounding a Tk15 lakh goat since Eid-ul-Azha this year, has been removed from his post as the president of the VAT tribunal of the National Board of Revenue and the directorship of state-owned Sonali Bank this week, said sources in the ministry of Finance.
The Ministry of Finance issued a notification regarding the removal of Matiur Rahman from the NBR and attaching him to the Internal Resources Division (IRD) on Sunday (23 June).
NBR is a governmental agency working under the IRD.
A Sonali Bank board meeting presided over by its Chairman Ziaul Hasan Siddiqui took the decision to strip Matiur Rahman off directorship of the bank, said the source of the financial institutions department of the Ministry of Finance.
According to the sources, Sonali Bank has been verbally informed by the Financial Institutions Department that Matiur Rahman should not attend the board meeting.
The bank also advised Matiur Rahman not to appear and he also accepted it, sources said.
Matiur Rahman has been serving as the president of Customs, Excise and VAT Appellate Tribunal as well as director of Sonali Bank.
The Financial Institutions Department recommended that he be appointed as the director of Sonali Bank for three years on 1 February 2022.
A young man who is said to be Matiur Rahman's son, reportedly bought a goat for Tk15 lakh from Sadeeq Agro in Mohammadpur during Eid-ul-Azha this year and went viral over it.
Since then, discussions began on the young man, named Mushfiqur Rahman Ifat, and how a 19-year-old can afford such an expensive sacrificial animal along with expensive watches, and cars, and maintain a luxurious lifestyle.
There have been also calls to investigate Matiur for corruption.
Matiur, however, has said Ifat is not his son.
During a television interview, Matiur Rahman said: "I do not have a son named Ifat. I have one son and one daughter. My son's name is Ahmed Toufiqur Rahman and my daughter's is Farhana Rahman.”
“My son is very religious, prays five times a day, and has studied abroad. He left a job worth $100,000 and now lives with us in Bashundhara. The slander that is being spread is reclusive and deeply hurtful,” he added.
Despite these denials, evidence suggesting a familial link surfaced.
Matiur Rahman is said to have two wives.
Further fueling the speculations, Feni-2 Member of Parliament Nizam Uddin Hazari has said that Ifat is indeed the son of Matiur Rahman from his second wife, who is the MP’s maternal cousin.
The MP said Matiur Rahman regularly participates in family events with his second wife and may have denied the relationship out of anger.
