Aziz Mohammad Bhai
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Aziz Mohammad Bhai (born 1962) is a Bangladeshi industrialist and a former film producer. He is currently the chairman of Olympic Industries Limited. In May 2024, Bhai was sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1998 murder case of the actor Sohel Chowdhury.


Background

Aziz Mohammad Bhai was born in Armanitola,
Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...
in 1962 to Mohammad Bhai (d. 2018) and Khadiza Mohammad Bhai. The family had migrated from
Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...
to
East Pakistan East Pakistan was the eastern province of Pakistan between 1955 and 1971, restructured and renamed from the province of East Bengal and covering the territory of the modern country of Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Burma, wit ...
during the
Partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...
in 1947. Mohammad established the first steel mill in the region in 1959. He established a battery business Bengal Carbide Limited (later renamed to Olympic Industries Limited) in 1979 and appointed his brother, Mubarak Ali (d. 2023), as the managing director. In 1996, the company started the business of making biscuits. Aziz had a brother, Raja Mohammad Bhai.


Business

Aziz became one of the richest industrialists in Bangladesh owning eleven industries. He is also a life member of the SAARC Chamber of Commerce. After his father's death in 2018, he became the chairman of Olympic Industries Limited. He is also the chairman of Ambee Pharmaceuticals Ltd and Ambee Films. Ambee Films produced several major films.


Charges and allegations

Bhai was first arrested during the tenure of president
Hussain Muhammad Ershad Hussain Muhammad Ershad (1 February 1930 – 14 July 2019) was a Bangladeshi military officer, dictator and politician who served as President of Bangladesh, the president of Bangladesh from 1982 to 1990. He seized power as a result of a 1982 ...
and was released after
Prince Karim Aga Khan Prince Karim al-Husseini (13 December 1936 – 4 February 2025), known as the Aga Khan IV, was the 49th imam of Nizari Isma'ilism from 1957 until his death in 2025. He inherited the Nizari imamate and the title of Aga Khan at the age of 20 upo ...
, the 49th and current Imam of Nizari Ismailism, came to Bangladesh. In 1996, the
Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) is the regulator of the capital market of Bangladesh, comprising Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE). The commission is a statutory body and attached to the Mini ...
filed a case against Bhai and the Olympic Industries Limited for extracting money from the stock market fraudulently. A Dhaka tribunal issued an arrest warrant against him in the case in August 2018. Actor Sohel Chowdhury was killed on 18 December 1998 in front of Trumps Club, a club owned by Bhai. On 30 July 199, the Detective Branch of police pressed charges against Bhai along with the club's co-owners Ashish Ray Chowdhury (also Bottle Chowdhury) and Afaqul Islam (also Bunty Islam), and suspects Sanjidul Hasan Emon and Harun Ur Rashid (also Leather Liton) and four others. According to the charge sheet, Sohel Chowdhury had a brawl with Bhai about the mosque management committee trying to shut down the club on 24 July 1998, around 5 months before the killing. The High Court stayed the proceedings of the trial from 2003 until February 2022. Ashish was arrested on 5 April 2022. On 9 May 2024, the High Court sentenced life imprisonment to Bhai, Afakul Islam (also Bunty Islam) and Adnan Siddiqui. Ashish Ray Choudhury, Tariq Sayeed Mamun, Faruque Abbasi, Sanzidul Hasan Emon, Selim Khan and Harun Ur Rashid were acquitted. In 2007,
Rapid Action Battalion Rapid Action Battalion (; abbreviated as RAB) is an anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit of the Bangladesh Police. This elite force consists of members of the Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Navy, Bangladesh Air Force, Bangladesh Police, Border Guard ...
seized 130,000 yaba pills with the raw materials to make yaba, from a house in Gulshan. Bhai's nephew Aminul Huda was arrested and Bhai was probed in this case. In October 2019, the
Department of Narcotics Control Department of Narcotics Control (Bengali: মাদকদ্রব্য নিয়ন্ত্রণ অধিদপ্তর, romanized: Mādakadrabya niẏantraṇa adhidaptara) is the main government agency responsible for narcotics control ...
seized liquor bottles and poker table with chips in an anti-narcotics operation at the rooftop casino and bar at the house of Bhai. Bhai's nephew Ahad was the owner of the bar. The house was empty during the raid.


Personal life

Bhai is married to Naureen Aziz Mohammad Bhai. She has been running the family businesses in Bangladesh which includes the ones in pharmaceuticals, the iron and steel sector, and consumer goods. She is the director of Ambee Pharmaceuticals, Bengal Steel Works Ltd, Ambee Ltd, AKES B, and The Morning Sun. She owns Progoti Printing and Packaging. The couple has three sons and two daughters. One son, Asar Aziz M Bhai, took a board position in Olympic Industries Limited in June 2023. Ahad Mohammad Bhai, a son of Aziz's brother Raja Mohammad Bhai, also got appointed as a shareholder director. Aziz's cousin, Munir Ali (Mubarak Ali's son, and Aziz's sister's son, Samad Miraly, are also involved running the business. As of 2022, Chowdhury has been living in Thailand. He has resorts in Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Singapore.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bhai, Aziz Mohammad 1962 births Living people Bangladeshi businesspeople Bangladeshi film producers