Ashulia land grabbed at dead of night

Hired men of Landmark Engineers and Real Estate Limited puts up a signboard after occupying a land at Ashulia at dead of night on April 8. Photo: Courtesy

A group of land grabbers occupied a big plot in Ashulia at dead of night with blessings of two influential government officials while a civil case involving the plot is still pending with the High Court, said the evicted party at a press conference yesterday.
Several hundred hired men of Landmark Engineers and Real Estate Limited led by its owner Deepak Bhoumik along with local accomplices Wahab Sarkar, Raju and Molamdi occupied 4.5 bighas of land on April 8, Dr Anwarul Islam, former principal of Rajshahi Medical College, alleged at the press conference at Dhaka Reporters' Unity auditorium.
The grabbers assaulted the security guards, demolished boundary wall and a semi-concrete house and plundered timber and fruit trees and bamboo bushes before erecting the signboard of Landmark there, he said.
Khodeza Shahana Akhtar, wife of Dr Islam, filed a case (No. 28) in this connection with the Ashulia Police Station on April 9.
Dr Islam said that Second Officer of the police station Monjur Morshed had refused to record the case in the early hours of April 9, as Wahab, Molamdi and Raju were relations of a high-ranking police official.
"Later, we had to drop their names just to record the case," he added.
In 1995, Shahana Akhtar, on behalf of her mother, sister and three brothers, filed a civil case (No. 142) with the High Court for correction of RS record of the said property.
She said that her family have been in possession of the property in Gouripur mouja under Ashulia Police Station for the past 40 years since 1970.
Dr Islam said that one Fazlul Karim claimed the ownership of the property using false documents and sold it to one Sakhina Khatun, who sold it to Doel Group. Singapore-Bangladesh Properties bought the land from Doel Group and sold it to Landmark.
When contacted, Officer-in-Charge of Ashulia Police Station Md Sirajul Islam said, "We have asked the Landmark authorities to vacate the site."
Additional superintendent of police of Dhaka will sit with both the parties on April 19 to examine the ownership documents, he added.
Wahab Sarkar told The Daily Star over phone: "Previously I just brokered a land purchase deal of Landmark, but I am not involved in the present incident."
When contacted, Landmark director Md Haidar Hossain said, "We did not go to take the possession of the land at night, we took it in February."