A senior Jamaat-e-Islami leader in Jhenaidah has come under fire after allegedly collecting a bicycle allocated in the name of a madrasa student and handing it over to his own granddaughter.

The allegation was brought against Maulana Tazul Islam, ameer of Kotchandpur upazila Jamaat-e-Islami and former upazila chairman. Following public criticism, he returned the bicycle to the upazila parishad.

According to Kotchandpur upazila parishad records, allocations under the discretionary fund of the Jhenaidah-3 lawmaker Md Motiar Rahman of Jamaat included bicycles for disadvantaged meritorious students, sewing machines for underprivileged women, spray machines for farmers, goats for beggars, and footballs for youths. From Tk 37.4 lakh, the upazila distributed 24 bicycles, 28 sewing machines, 37 spray machines, 16 goats, 150 footballs, and several medical devices.

One bicycle was allocated in the name of Saimun Islam, a class 7 student of Kotchandpur Kamil Madrasa. Saimun said his family had provided his birth registration certificate to Tazul without knowing it would be used to claim the bicycle.

Responding to the allegations, Tazul told The Daily Star that he used Saimun’s documents "due to an error" in his granddaughter’s birth registration. He said he signed the register himself when Saimun was absent at the Upazila Parishad at the time of distribution, and later gave the bicycle to his granddaughter. After questions were raised, he returned it to the Upazila Parishad.

He acknowledged that he made a mistake.

Kotchandpur Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Deepa Rani Sarkar told The Daily Star, "After the distribution, we came to know that the upazila Jamaat ameer had used another person's name to receive a bicycle and later gave it to his own granddaughter. When the matter became public, he returned the bicycle to the Upazila Parishad, and it was subsequently handed over to a disadvantaged student," she said.

When contacted, district Jamaat Ameer Ali Azam Muhammad Abu Bakar declined to comment on the issue.