Moudud sued for 'grabbing govt land'

The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday lodged a case against BNP lawmaker Moudud Ahmed and his brother Manjur Ahmed on charge of grabbing an abandoned public land worth over Tk 300 crore in capital's Gulshan.
Harunur Rashid, deputy director (DD) of the ACC, filed the case with Gulshan Police Station stating that Moudud and his brother grabbed the land -- stretching over around one bigha and 13 katha -- at Gulshan between 1978 and 2006.
Moudud prepared fake documents abusing his power of minister in different terms to grab the land, cancelled its aban doned status, and arranged a deal to buy it for his brother, Harunur Rashid told The Daily Star.
The ACC lodged the case after an investigation that started during the period of caretaker government in 2008, he added.
Moudud, who is behind bars now, was arrested along with four other BNP leaders on November 8 for “attempting to murder cops and creating violence in the capital”. His brother Manjur is now living in London.
According to the case statement, the land was enlisted as the government's abandoned land in 1972 after Pakistani couple Mohammad Ehsan and Inge Maria Flatz left the country before 1972.
Ehsan received the possession of the land in 1961 from now-defunct DIT [now Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha], the case statement said, adding the land was transferred to Flatz in 1965.
Moudud falsely showed that Flatz issued a power of attorney in favour of him on August 2, 1973.
Harunur said Moudud grabbed the land and its establishment, and started living there showing him as a tenant of Flatz. But the ACC investigation found no record that says that she visited Bangladesh after the independence of the country.
Moudud became a minister of Major Ziaur Rahman's government in 1978. He also became deputy prime minister of Hussain Mohammad Ershad's government after being elected as lawmaker in 1979.
During the periods, he influenced concerned government departments to cancel abandoned status of the land [NW(H) 6, Holding-159, Gulshan Avenue of Gulshan residential area], according to a source in the ACC.
On June 21, 1980, he abused his power, and forced the then public works and urban development ministry to prepare an illegal document showing re-allotment of the plot to Flatz.
Moudud did it to show Flatz as legal owner of the land so that he could use her in grabbing the land, Harunur said.
On March 25, 1984, he showed that Flatz issued another power of attorney in favour of one Mohsin Darbar against the land, the case statement said.
The statement added that Mohsin signed a deal on August 10, 1985 for selling it to Moudud's brother Manjur after the death of Flatz on March 3, 1985.
The government published a gazette on September 23, 1986 showing the land as abandoned one. In spite of that, Moudud's law firm "M/S Moudud and Associates" issued a letter to Bangladesh Bank on April 20, 1987 to deposit the rents of the land.
Moudud, however, did not deposit any money as rent, though BB gave instructions in response to his law firm's letter, the statement added.
Harunur added that Flatz was an Australian national who never came to the country after the independence.