Sajib, a final year student of Dhaka College, said with tears in his eyes: "You have thrown out all our dreams in the dustbin, now you are sleeping at home.”
“I did not know that the landlords of Dhaka city could be so inhuman. All the certificates I had acquired in my education life, all of them were thrown away.”
Nine students, including Sajib, used to live in a flat in a building owned by Mojibul Haque alias Kanchan Miah in Dhanmondi area.
They were evicted without any notice while they were away at their village homes due to the coronavirus pandemic. The building owner threw away their certificates, laptops and other belongings in the dustbin.
It is not only Sajib but as many as 130 students of a private university in Rajabazar area who were evicted from Alif Hostel. Their belongings were piled up in the garage.
All these students had gone to their homes outside Dhaka when the government ordered a shutdown of educational institutions in the country to curb the spread of coronavirus.
When the students learned about the incident they rushed back to the hostel and complained that many of their belongings had been lost.
The hostel authorities told them their belongings had been thrown out because they had not been paying the rent for the last three months.
One student complained that though they were asked for payment of the rent in the first month, they could not do so because of the coronavirus situation.
However, they were not contacted later by the hostel authorities on the rent issue. Instead, the hostel management dumped their belongings without any notice.
Two separate cases have been lodged in Kalabagan police station in this regard.
Sajib, the Dhaka College student, filed a case against his landlord Kanchan while another private university student, Sohan, filed a case against owner Saikat and director Khorshed of Alif Hostel.
Abul Hasan, assistant commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police New Market zone, confirmed the matter to Dhaka Tribune.
He said one of the aggrieved students said he had left his JSC, SSC and diploma certificates behind, but now after the incident he was not being able to find them . Another student had desktops, laptops and many other important items inside a trunk. He too did not find anything.
The police official said Alif hostel Director Khorshed had been arrested, but the owner Saikat and the flat owner of Dhanmondi, Kanchan, had gone into hiding.
“We are trying to arrest the accused. Strict action will be taken against them,” he said.