Suranjit Sengupta

Early life and education

Sengupta was born in Derai Upazila, Sunamganj District to Devendra Nath Sengupta and Sumati Bala Sengupta. Among four brothers and a sister, he was the youngest. He completed his bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Dhaka. He earned his LLB at the Central Law College and practised law for a while.

Career

Sengupta started his career as a lawyer. He became a member of Supreme Court Bar Council. He started his political career with leftist parties. In 1970's National Election of Pakistan, he was elected from the Sylhet District as a candidate of the National Awami Party in the Provincial Assembly. He participated in the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 as a sub-commander of the Sector-5. In the Constituent Assembly of Bangladesh, he was a vocal member of the opposition bench. In 1979, he represented the Ekota Party in the House and in 1991, the Ganatantri Party. He joined Bangladesh Awami League party in 1996, but lost the national election that year. But he made to parliament through a by-election. He represented Sunamganj-2 constituency in the next three Parliaments.

On 24 February 1996, prior to the controversial elections that month, police raided his house along with those of Amir Hossain Amu and Abdur Razzak under the Special Powers Act, but were unable to locate him.

In November 2011, Sengupta was made a Cabinet member of the newly-formed Railways Ministry. But after a bribery scandal became known, leaders from both the Bangladesh Workers Party and the Awami League called for him to resign. He served as a minister without a portfolio. He was not selected for a Cabinet position after the 2014 election.

Railway bribery scandal

Suranjit took over as Railway Minister and resigned after 5 months on an allegation of bribery. He was accused of direct involvement in corruption 100 million Taka. On 9 April 2012 his assistant personal secretary, general manager of the eastern region, and commandant of security were driving to Suranjit's residence with 7.4 million Taka of bribe money, when the driver Azam Khan turned them in. On 17 April 2012, Suranjit Sengupta was appointed minister without portfolio one day after submitting his resignation as Railways Minister and after being accused of bribery.

Amar Desh allegations of corruption

On 31 March 2013, the newspaper Amar Desh published a report stating that Sengupta demanded a thirty million Taka bribe from an orphanage project, and cancelled the project's funding when his demand was refused. Sengupta commented on the report, saying, "The matter of asking for a three crore bribe is a complete lie. There are 36–37 education institutions in my area. But the huge funding of this project created a negative impression with the local institutions. So I suggested distributing the fund equally to the existing institutions in order to eliminate the negativity created."

In April 2013, Sengupta brought a defamation case against the Amar Desh staff, including Mahmudur Rahman and an NGO official for the publishing of this report.

Personal life and death

Sengupta was married to Jaya Sengupta. Together they had one son, Showmon Sengupta.

Sengupta died on 5 February 2017 at Labaid hospital in Dhaka. According to Awami League secretary Obaidul Quader, he died at 4:24 in the morning.