According to an official statement, Bahrom Inoyatzoda was relieved of his post of mayor of Kulob and arrested on corruption charges. Meanwhile, friends of the former Kulob mayor consider that Kulob mayor suffered because of his words addressed to the head of the communication service agency Beg Sabourov, father of the son-in-law of President Emomali Rahmon.
Recall, Tajikistan's State Committee for National Security (SCNS) said that Inoyatzoda was arrested on June 8, while his personal driver Khursandali Khurramov and the head of his reception office, Firouz Qurbonov, were arrested days earlier.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that Khurramov and Qurbonov committed crimes of corruption on the orders of the Mayor of Kulob," a SCNS statement said.
SCNS didn't give any further details on which crimes the three men are suspected of committing.
Bahrom Inoyatzoda, who held different state positions for many years, was appointed to the post of Kulob mayor in May last year.
Following the SCNS statement on June 8, President Emomali Rahmon issued a decree appointing Abduqodir Valizoda as acting mayor of Kulob.
Residents of Kulob have perceived the information about the arrest of Bahrom Inoyatzoda differently.
Some of them said that he had been arrested rightly, while others said that the mayor was not guilty of the charges brought against him. “The problem is that his entourage often did dirty things behind him. He found out about it, but too late,” one of former mayor’s friends told Asia-Plus in an interview.
Another friend of Inoyatzoda, speaking on the basis of anonymity, said that Inoyatzoda’s public statement to the head of the communications service agency Beg Sabourov during a news conference in February this year could be the reason for removal of him from office.
“Two construction enterprises of Beg Sabourov operate in Kulob and they now owe more than 4 million somoni for electricity and taxes. If he does not repay the debts, we will pull the plug on him (create unbearable working conditions).”
Asked how he intends to do this, Inoyatzoda reportedly said: “We will turn off electricity and water, and his enterprises will stop operating.”
According to Inoyatzoda’s friend, the previous mayors of Kulob had tried to avoid issues concerning Beg Sabourov’s companies.
However, not all Kulabis shares this opinion. Some of them said that Bahrom Inoyatzoda had been arrested rightly.
