HC hearing today

A damaged temple at Palita of Rajoir upazila in Madaripur. File Photo

The Madaripur district administration has prepared a probe report on the damage of two century-old Hindu temples at Palita of Rajoir upazila in the district, apparently to shield the perpetrators behind the incident, locals allege.
The High Court is set to hear the matter today. The deputy commissioner's (DC) office of Madaripur prepared the report and submitted it to the attorney general's office on February 28, sources have said.
The report says the temples -- one of Goddess Kali and another of God Gopal -- on 1.55 acres of government land were not demolished by any authority or any person, but had been damaged due to lack of proper maintenance.
Rejecting the report findings, the temples' governing committee on Friday submitted an application to the DC requesting him to personally conduct an inquiry after visiting the temples and taking statements from local people.
Villagers and members of the governing committee have claimed that one Nirmal Kanti Halder and his brother Shanti Ranjan Halder, who are very rich and influential in the area, have demolished the temples at different times in their own interest. Nirmal is a retired school headmaster while Shanti is a retired college official. The latter is an accused in a murder case.
The committee's general secretary, Bharat Chandra Halder, and several members said Nirmal had sold a large number of bricks of the temples several years ago. He has recently cut down and sold some old trees at the temple premises. Occupying the temples' land, Nirmal had built a small house on the premises for his personal work.
Keeping track of developments, the temple committee last year submitted an application to the DC's office, but it did not take any action against the accused due to mysterious reasons.
The HC bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik and Justice Jahangir Hossain Selim on January 24 directed the Madaripur DC to investigate whether the temples were demolished and to prosecute the perpetrators in accordance with the provisions of Criminal Procedure Code and the Penal Code.
Nirmal, who was kept in the dock during the hearing, admitted that he had been occupying the land since 1987 without any lease agreement, but claimed that he had requested the DC office for a lease.
The court rebuked Nirmal for occupying the land.
Contacted by The Daily Star, Md Nur-Ur-Rahman, DC of Madaripur, said his subordinate officials dealt with the matter after visiting the place, and then he prepared the report as per the findings.
“Place your statements before the court. I cannot make any comment,” the DC said.
On February 23, a team led by an additional deputy commissioner and UNO of Rajoir went to the temple to evict two landless families who have been involved with the temples for around 25 years, in the name of evicting “unauthorised structures”.
They, however, refrained from evicting them after Deputy Attorney General ABM Altaf Hossain contacted the district administration over phone and said that the families could not be evicted from the temple as per the court order.
The small house built by Nirmal was demolished, but the officials did not take statements of the locals, Bharat Chandra said. “Nirmal is now attempting to form a false committee of the temple with the help of his accomplices to grab the land of the temple,” he added.
Eminent lawyer Manzill Murshid said the administration was trying to save the persons who had damaged the temples and the environment by making such a false probe report. It is tantamount to showing disrespect to the HC.
During the hearing on January 24, Manzill as an intervener in the case presented to the HC bench some photographs on the demolition of the temples and felling of the trees.
Nirmal could not be reached for his comments on the issue despite several attempts by our Madaripur correspondent.