Arrest Hindu's land grabbers by 48hrs, HC asks cops
The High Court today directed the superintendent of police in Lalmonirhat to arrest the people responsible for forcibly grabbing a piece of land of a Hindu family in Lalmonirhat in 48 hours.
In response to a writ petition filed by a rights organisation, the court also ordered the district police chief to submit a report before it after complying with the court directive.
According to the court order, the police official will have to submit the report in seven days.
On February 9, a group of ruling Awami League men picked up Bhabani Kanta Sen and his two sons, resident of Rasulpur village in Patgram upazila of Lalmonirhat, and held them hostage at the house of a party leader, Nazrul Islam, in the same locality.
Later, they were forced to sign a non-judicial stamp, stating that they were handing over the ownership of a 32-decimal plot of land to Rabiul Islam Miron, president of the AL Bawra union unit.
During today's hearing, the HC also asked the Inspector General of Police to investigate the land grabbing allegation and submit a report before it in next 30 days after investigating the incident.
The HC bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf Hossain came up with the order after holding hearing a writ petition filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) seeking the arrest of the people responsible in the land grabbing.
The rights organisation lodged the petition following a report published in The Daily Star on March 2 under the headline “Hindu's land grabbed by AL leader”.
In the petition, the HRPB prayed to the HC to direct the government to ensure security of the Hindus in Patgram and protect their rights to property.
It also urged the court to ask the government to form a committee to investigate the allegations against the ruling party men.
After the report was published, the administration asked the local police to take action. But police are yet to take any action in this regard. Instead, they tried to solve it through arbitration.
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