An understatement of damages?
Victims of the Narail mayhem alleged that the actual picture of the damage to Hindu households, shops and properties was not reflected in police's case statement as they deem it to be much higher.
On July 15, Hindu houses came under attack in Sahapara village of Narail's Lohagara upazila. At least 11 homes, five temples and around 20 shops were vandalised or burnt down.
Besides, the attackers looted valuables and cash from houses, temples and shops, said the victims.
Two days after the onslaught, Lohagara police station's sub-inspector Makfur Rahman filed a case against around 200 to 250 unnamed attackers.
In the case statement, the police officer wrote that the attackers hurled brickbats targeting a few temples, and vandalised some 10 to 15 plastic chairs worth around Tk 5,000.
However, victims of the attack claimed that doors, windows, and idols of deities in five temples were completely damaged in addition to that.
The attackers even looted Pranami boxes kept in five temples for devotees to donate cash, they said.
"The roughly estimated damages in these temples are worth a few lakh taka. We were surprised to see the case statement saying only a few plastic chairs of Tk 5,000 were damaged," said Socchindananda Roy, a resident of Sahapara.
The case statement said the attackers damaged a refrigerator and television, and looted Tk 20,000 cash and gold ornaments of 3 tola from a residence, causing a loss of around Tk 2.10 lakh to victim Dilip Saha.
This correspondent visited Dilip Saha's house a day after the attack and found all the furniture and amenities completely vandalised.
Dilip claimed that the amount of his total loss is much higher than the amount mentioned in police's statement.
Similarly, the case statement said properties of around Tk 1 lakh were damaged in Govinda Saha's house and Tk 10,000 in Shiv Sankar Saha's residence. However, both of them claimed that the amounts are much higher.
During the visit, this correspondent found that at least 11 Hindu houses were either attacked, vandalised or torched.
The figure mentioned by the victims was similar to this observation.
However, only three houses are mentioned to have come under the attack in the case statement.
"All the sweets and curd in my shop were damaged and looted. The estimated loss is around Tk 30,000," said Goutam Saha, who owns a confectionery in Dighalia Bazar.
The case statement, however, mentioned his losses to be worth around Tk 9,000.
The attackers vandalised and looted around 20 shops in Dighalia Bazar, according to the victims, while the case statement mentions that only four shops came under attack.
"All my grocery items were damaged. Rice, pulses and oil containers were thrown on the road. But police did not mention this in their statement," said Nittyagopal Saha, a trader in Dighalia Bazar.
Contacted, SI Makfur Raham, said he wrote the case statement based on the information he found while visiting the scene.
"I did not try to hide anything. Rather, I prepared the case statement based on what I saw at the scene," he told this correspondent.
Contacted, the case's investigation officer SI Mizanur Rahman of the same police station said nine accused in the case have so far been arrested.
"We are trying to arrest the others," he added.
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