Land taken from man on remand

Zaher Ali signed three papers on July 26 last year, transferring his 88-decimal land in Sarulia of Demra in the capital to a housing project run by some top police officials.

But documents show he was on a five-day remand along with his son and son-in-law when the signing took place.

Family members alleged that he put his signature on those papers as police brutally tortured him and threatened to kill the other two detainees in “crossfire”.

Between July 11 and July 26, Zaher had to transfer 62.5-bigha land in Rupganj and Demra to Ananda Police Housing Society. Police also grabbed his three houses in Demra and took away his three private cars, they added.

Additional Deputy Inspector General of Police Gazi Mozammel Haque, director of the housing project, signed all the documents to get the land transferred.

Legal experts say an accused cannot hand over property to anyone while in police custody.

The Police Headquarters recently formed a three-member committee headed by DIG M Khurshid Hossain to investigate the allegations, said a senior official at the PHQ. 

Besides, Metropolitan Magistrate Debabrata Biswas ordered a judicial inquiry after Zaher’s daughter-in-law Afroza Akter Ankhi filed a case with a Dhaka court on March 14 this year.

Additional DIG Mozammel, his wife Farzana Mozammel and 18 others named, and 20 to 25 other unnamed persons were made accused in the case.

The other accused include DMP’s Detective Branch Inspector Dipok Kumar Das, ex-officer-in-charge of Rupganj Police Station Moniruzzaman Monir, Demra Sub-Registrar Afsana Begum, Office Assistant of the Sub-Registrar’s Office Hanif Ali Sheikh, and Executive Officer of United Commercial Bank’s Nayabazar branch Sazzadur Rahman Majumder.

In the case statement, Afroza alleged that on July 10 last year Rupganj OC Monir called her father-in-law Zaher and asked him to go to the Police Headquarters along with his eldest son Abdul Matin to discuss some business and official issues.

Zaher left for the PHQ with his son-in-law Taher and since then their cell phones were found switched off. “They were blindfolded and confined to a secluded place,” she alleged.

The next day, on July 11, Zaher was forced to sign five documents declaring transfer of his land. The deed numbers are 8430, 8431, 8432, 8433 and 8434, the statement reads.

Four days later, some of the accused claiming themselves as DB members allegedly abducted Afroza’s husband Matin from Kuril Biswa Road near Bashundhara Residential Area.

Threatening to kill Matin in “crossfire”, they got four other documents signed for transfer of land in Rupganj. The deed numbers are 8573, 8574, 8576 and 8577, reads the statement.  

Zaher, Matin and Taher were traceless until police showed them arrested on July 23 last year in a case filed with Shahbagh Police Station on July 16, 2018.

After a court order, they were then taken on a five-day remand beginning on July 25 last year.

ABM Siddiqur Rahman, senior general manager of Ananda Housing Society, filed the case against the three on charges of embezzling money, creating forged land documents and selling land pretending to be its owner.

DB Inspector Dipok Kumar Das, investigation officer of this case, allegedly tortured Zaher during remand.    

The official also took Zaher to Scout Building at Nightingale Crossing in the capital’s Paltan area on July 26 and forced him to sign two documents, said Afroza’s case statement.

Zaher, a land broker by profession, had to sign another paper revoking his power of attorney for the land he had mortgaged to Nayabazar branch of UCB. He handed over the power of attorney to Additional DIG Mozammel.

Afroza also alleged that police drove out family members from their houses on August 31 last year, and filed cases one after another against them.

Zaher along with his son and son-in-law were released on bail before the last Eid-ul-Fitr and went into hiding, according to his brother Ali Hossain.

Neither Afroza nor the three victims could be reached over phone despite repeated attempts. Nobody could say where they were when one of these reporters visited their homes in Tengra of Demra and Bhaktabari in Rupganj earlier this month.

In a TV channel recently, Zaher alleged that during his remand in DB office, police tortured them severely and threatened them to kill if he does not transfer his land to Mozammel.

“They inhumanely tortured me before my son and son-in-law. They also tortured them in front of me. They referred to Ilias Ali [disappeared BNP leader] saying, ‘Has he ever come back?’” he said, sobbing.

Ali Hossain said after the incident was reported in the media, police again started looking for his brother. “I have an apprehension that police might abduct and kill them. Everyone has gone into hiding in fear,” he told The Daily Star.

Sohel Rana, assistant inspector general (media) at the Police Headquarters, said the housing project doesn’t belong to Bangladesh Police. Some policemen may be personally involved in it.

“However, if any law has been violated in the process, we will take action after probe.”

Contacted, DB Inspector Dipok Kumar said the trio were on remand but he does not know anything about the transfer of land.

Asked how come he does not know anything about the land transfer when the three were under his custody, he said other police members might have taken them away for questioning.

Replying to another query, Dipok said as far as his knowledge goes, around 1,200 police officials are members of the housing project.

Moniruzzamn, now posted at Sonargaon Police Station, said, “It is not true that I called him [Zaher] over the phone and asked him to go to the Police Headquarters. They are annoyed at me as several cases were filed against them during my term.”

This newspaper repeatedly tried to reach Additional DIG Mozammel but he did not receive any phone calls. He also did not respond to text messages.

VISIT IN DEMRA

The three buildings in Demra’s Paschim Tengra have long been known to locals as the property of the family of Zaher Ali. Now, they say, the houses have been occupied by a police officer.

“We came to know that police arrested Zaher Ali and his son and grabbed the houses,” said Abdul Mannan, a resident of the area.

Hadis Sikder, a former tenant of one of the buildings, said, “Eight to nine months ago, some policemen came to our house and asked us to shift elsewhere by next month. All the families left within a couple of weeks.”

As this correspondent visited the house, a youth aged around 25 identified himself as the caretaker of the building but declined to disclose his name. 

“Additional DIG Mozzamel Sir owns the three houses,” he said.

Demra Sub-Registrar Afsana Begum and Nayabazar UCB’s Executive Officer Sazzadur Rahman Majumder could not be contacted.