Arrest warrants issued against 9

A Cox's Bazar court on Sunday issued arrest warrants against nine persons on charges of encroaching Cox's Bazar sea beach and illegal sand mining in the Bay of Bengal.

Judge Sanjida Zafrin Diba of Chittagong Environment Court issued the warrants against Jatiya Party Central Vice Chairman Nurul Amin Shanu and eight others.

The accused are: owner of Hotel Bay Paradise and JP leader Nurul Amin Shanu; Chairman and Director of Static Properties Kamaruzzaman Khan and Kamrul Hasan respectively; Founder of Cox's Bazar Surf Club and owner of Metal Private Ltd Engineer Sadek Jamil; owner of Project Builders Ltd Aminul Islam; Chairman and Managing Director of Home Stone Properties Ltd Dalia Alam and her husband Shahidul Alam; owner of Crown Pacific Beach Hotel and Resort Mohammad Habibur Rahman and employee of Faquir Group Kamal Uddin. 

The case was filed with Cox's Bazar Sadar Police Station on August 15, 2011 by Ibrahim Khalil Mamun, then president of Youth Environment Society in the district, said his lawyer Advocate Akter Hossain, accusing the nine of encroaching the beach and illegally lifting sand from the sea to construct roads, infrastructures and multi-storied buildings, endangering the ecologically critical area of Cox's Bazar sea beach.

In 2011, the court appointed Saiful Ashraf, inspector of Department of Environment (DoE) in Cox's Bazar, as the investigation officer (IO) of the case.

In September the same year, Saiful filed a report with the court seeking directive to take necessary legal action against the accused. 

Later, as he was transferred, Sarder Shariful Islam, assistant director of DoE in Cox's Bazar was appointed the new IO in 2015.

In his report submitted to Senior Judicial Magistrate Court in Cox's Bazar on April 11, 2016, Shariful allegedly excluded the names of some of the prime accused.

“Following this, Ibrahim filed a no-confidence petition against the report upon which court ordered a re-investigation,” said the lawyer. 

Earlier this year, Jahanara Yasmin, the incumbent inspector of DoE in Cox's Bazar was ordered to probe and submit the report to the court. Recently, she submitted her investigation report.

Contacted, the petitioner of the case Ibrahim said, he will file another no confidence petition against the report submitted by Jahanara as she named employee of the Faquir Group in her report but did not accuse its owners.