Officials from the local administration offices of Sonargaon and Pirojpur have set off a joint drive to evict MP Haji Salim’s illegally grabbed land used for his organization Madina Group’s Tiger Cement Company in Sonargaon, Narayanganj.
The eviction drive took place on Sunday afternoon from 3pm to 7pm at the Meghna River bank area.
Assistant Commissioner of Land (AC-Land) of Sonargaon Al Mamun led the drive while Pirojpur’s Deputy AC-Land Ataur Rahman was present with law enforcers of the district.
Officials from the Sonargaon Upazila Land Office have issued a three-day notice to the Madina Group authorities to vacate the premises, confirmed AC-Land Al Mamun.
“If they don’t oblige by the orders in due time, we will make another drive to evict them,” said the official.
He also said legal steps will be taken about the huge amount of public property being grabbed.
Also Read - Guns, liquor found in Haji Selim’s house, son Erfan jailed for a year
Earlier in 2018, ruling party MP Haji Salim's Madina Group grabbed at least 11 bighas of fallow land at Meghna River bank area of Sonargaon upazila in Narayanganj.
Although the district administration officials demarcated the government land with red flags, Madina Group men removed the flags as soon as the administrative officials left the spot.
Later the group built a boundary wall around the land and filled the land with sand. The current estimated market price of land is Tk17.8 crore.
The records say, the AC-Land at the time, Nazmul Hussain, conducted an investigation and sent a letter to the deputy commissioner and Haji Salim on 29 September 2019.
According to the letter, Madina Group Managing Director Haji Salim illegally grabbed around 3.42 acres of land in Meghna river bank area, filling it with sand to set up different establishments of the group.
On August 6, 2018, Haji Salim applied to the deputy commissioner of Narayanganj for getting official ownership of the grabbed land, however, the DC office did not respond.
Nonetheless, Haji Salim grabbed the public property defying the administration and have since been using it as his personal property, local sources said.
It is to be noted that Awami League MP Haji Md Selim’s son Erfan Selim, who is also the councillor of Ward 30 under Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), was jailed for a year after illegal guns, ammunition, liquor, walkie-talkies and handcuffs were found during a Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) raid at the MP's Old Dhaka residence.
Erfan was arrested during the raid on Monday, along with his bodyguard Md Zahid. A mobile court led by RAB Executive Magistrate Sarwar Alam sentenced the two to a year’s imprisonment for possession of alcohol and firearms.
RAB conducted the raid on Haji Selim’s residence in Lalbagh after Lieutenant Wasif Ahmad, an officer of Bangladesh Navy, filed an assault case against Erfan on Sunday night.