Ragib Ali appeals against verdict

Ragib’s counsel filed an appeal on his behalf with the Sylhet Metropolitan Sessions Judge Akbar Hossain Mridha’s court on Thursday. Confirming the matter, Public Prosecutor Mofur Ali said the court had fixed March 8 for the hearing on the appeal. The duo were sentenced on February 2 in a case filed for forging signatures and grabbing the land of an endowment property owned by Sylhet’s Tarapur Tea Estate. Two cases were filed against Ragib, his son, and four others for grabbing the land of Tarapur Tea Estate and setting up structures, flouting the rules. He and his family members fled to India through the Jakiganj border on August 10, hours after a court ordered his arrest in connection with the cases. Later, he was arrested in Assam, as his visa had expired, and handed over to Bangladesh authorities through the Sutarkandi border. The irregularities were first detected by a Parliamentary Standing Committee in 1999, which recommended that the authorities take legal action against the grabbers. Based on their suggestions, the then land commissioner of Sylhet filed the two cases with Kotwali police on September 27, 2005. But proceedings had stalled for 11 years. In its final verdict, the Appellate Division on January 19, 2016 ordered the government to reclaim the land of the tea garden and revive the cases. In April, the Police Bureau of Investigation started re-investigating the case and filed a charge sheet on July 10. Ragib Ali is the vice-chairman of South East Bank, chairman of the trustee board of Leading University and former chairman of the North South University trustee board. He founded Ragib-Rabeya Medical College in Jalalabad in Sylhet and many other organisations, including local newspaper the Daily Sylheter Dak. Until the apex court's verdict came last year, Ragib Ali was widely known as Daanbir or philanthropist for his financial contributions to many educational institutions.