Suspension of Mayors: Govt suspending, court staying

The High Court stayed the government orders suspending the mayors of Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) and Habiganj municipality yesterday, a day after staying for three months the suspension of Sylhet City Corporation (SCC) mayor.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (LGRD) has suspended four more public representatives in Meherpur, Dinajpur and Faridpur districts.

On Sunday, the LGRD ministry suspended three pro-BNP mayors – SCC's Ariful Huq Chowdhury, RCC's Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul and Habiganj municipality's GK Gaus -- saying three courts accepted charge sheets against them in separate criminal cases.

The HC passed yesterday's orders hours after Bulbul and Gaus filed two separate writ petitions challenging the legality of the government decisions against them.

The HC bench of Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice Md Ataur Rahman Khan issued separate rules asking the government to explain why its decision to suspend the two mayors should not be declared illegal.

It also asked the government to explain why the relevant provisions of the local government act, under which the two mayors were suspended, should not be declared unconstitutional.

Following the HC orders, there is no legal bar for Bulbul and Gaus to discharge their duties as mayors, their lawyers Aminul Haque Helal and Khandker Mahbub Hossain told The Daily Star.

In the writ petitions, the mayors said that the government had suspended them with “mala fide intention”.

Following another writ petition, the HC on Monday stayed the suspension of Ariful Huq and issued a similar rule.

MEHERPUR

The ministry yesterday suspended the chairman and a vice-chairman of Mujibnagar Upazila Parishad in Meherpur.

Chairman Amirul Islam is the president of Mujibnagar upazila BNP while Vice-Chairman Zarjis Hossain is the general secretary of the upazila unit of Jamaat-e-Islami.

Hemayat Hossain, Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) of Mujibnagar, said he received a letter from the LGRD about the suspension order yesterday afternoon.

The letter mentioned that Amirul and Zarjis were accused in a case filed against them in 2013 and Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Meherpur accepted the charge sheet. So, they have been suspended.

According to the sources at Mujibnagar police, a group of BNP and Jamaat activists allegedly attacked a group of on duty policemen at Gournadi village in the upazila on September 19, 2013, leaving five cops, including a officer-in-charge (OC), injured.

OC Robiul filed a case accusing 200 people, including Amirul and Zarjis, and the court recently accepted the charge sheet.

Zarjis said he would challenge the suspension order with the HC.

Amirul could not be reached for comments.

DINAJPUR

The LGRD ministry suspended Golam Mortuza Sarker Manik, the mayor of Phulbari Municipality of Dinajpur, on Monday, more than three and a half month after a court accepted the charge sheet in a case filed against him.

In its letter, the ministry said Manik was suspended as the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Dinajpur accepted the charge sheet submitted in a case filed by Asia Energy on December 14, 2014.

Panel mayor Mamunur Rashid would now act as the acting mayor of the municipality, the letter mentioned.

Manik was an organiser of anti-coalmine protest in the upazila and was in the frontline of many movements to prevent the establishment of a coalmine in the upazila since 2005.

Asia Energy was to implement the coalmine project in the upazila, but the company couldn't due to the strong protest of local people. Three people were killed as BDR, now BGB, fired bullets on protesters on August 26 in 2006. 

People bursted into protest when Garry Lye, chief of Asia Energy, came to the upazila on November 29, 2014.

Later, Sahidur Rahman, a staff of Asia Energy, filed a case with Phulbari Police station on December 14 the same year accusing 60 people, including Manik.

Manik declined to make any comment over the issue.

FARIDPUR

Mohammad Wahiduzzaman, chairman of Saltha Upazila Parishad in Faridpur, has been suspended as a court accepted a charge sheet in a murder case filed against him, says a LGRD ministry notification issued on March 30.

The notification says the court accepted the charge sheet on August 22, 2016 in the case filed with Saltha Police Station.

The case was filed over the murder of Liton Alam, general secretary of Bhawal Juba League, on March 21, 2008.

Contacted, Wahiduzzaman said the ministry decision to suspend him was “motivated, illegal and based on wrong information” and that he would go to the High Court to challenge the decision.