Nakul Chandra Das, chairman of a Union Parishad (UP) of Rajnagar Upazila of Moulvibazar, has been suspended for his alleged involvement in the process of issuing fake birth registration certificates to 153 Rohingyas.
The Local Government Division (LGD) issued an order in this regard on April 24.
However, Moulvibazar Deputy Commissioner Urmi Binte Salam on Tuesday said: "A letter has arrived. I haven't seen it yet.”
According to the Upazila Nirbahi Officer and related Union Parishad office sources, a Rohingya woman named Asia Bibi, 27, was detained by the authorities while applying for a passport at the Shariatpur Regional Passport Office on September 18 last year.
As she did not have a voter ID card, she went to apply for a passport with a birth certificate.
The registration, with which Asia went to get the passport, was issued from Fatehpur Union of Rajnagar Upazila. The birth registration card was issued from the Union Parishad office on September 9 last year.
The arrested woman is said to be the daughter of Ali Johar and Ambia Khatun of Teknaf upazila in Cox's Bazar.
At the time, the higher authority sent a letter to the Rajnagar UNO of Moulvbibazar to verify the matter.
Later, the Rajnagar UNO called Fatehpur Union Secretary Papri Dutta to her office to explain the matter.
Subsequently, the birth registration ID issued by the union was kept inactive.
During the verification, the UNO found that 153 fake certificates were registered till September 9. Initially, they were all identified as Rohingya.
As a result of this incident, Fatehpur UP Chairman Nakul Chandra Das lodged a General Diary (GD) at Rajnagar police station.
According to the Registrar General's office, the operation of the birth registration server is OTP-based (One Time Password). After receiving the OTP, the local chairman verifies and recommends registration. The recommendation or assistance of the union parishad concerned is required in this process.
The registrar general's office also investigated the incident.
Registrar General (Additional Secretary) Zahid Hossain said: “We have investigated the incident. The responsible persons have been identified.”
An investigation report was prepared and sent to the LGRD Ministry. The suspension order has been made following the report.
The suspension order said that since allegations have been levelled against UP Chairman Nakul Chandra Das, the government considers that the exercise of the powers of the union parishad by him is not expedient from an administrative point of view. Under the provisions of the law, the union parishad chairman has been suspended from his post.
AKM Anisuzzaman, senior assistant secretary of the LGD, said: "We have decided to suspend the UP chairman after receiving the investigation report from the registrar general."
When contacted, the accused said: "The server was hacked, and fake registration was made. We do not have signatures on these registrations. I don't know what action has been taken by the ministry."