Ragib Ali gets 14 years in jail

The court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Saifuzzaman Hiro passed the order on Thursday afternoon. Court sources said that Ragib would have to serve a maximum of 6 years, as the four separate prison terms for the charges would run simultaneously. Two cases were filed against Ragib Ali, his son and four others for grabbing the land of an endowment property of Tarapur Tea Estate through forgery and setting structures flouting rules. He fled to India along with his family members through Jakiganj border on August 10, hours after a court ordered his arrest in two fraud cases. Later, he was arrested in Assam, as his visa expired, and handed over to Bangladesh authorities through the Shutarkandi 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 the suggestions, the then land commissioner of Sylhet filed two cases with Kotwali police on September 27, 2005. But proceedings remained stalled for 11 long 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-investigation of the case and filed a charge sheet on July 10. Others accused in either of the two cases are current caretaker of the tea garden Pankaj Kumar Gupta, Ragib’s relative Mostak Majid, daughter Rozina Qadir and son-in-law Abdul Qadir. Pankaj is now on bail and Majid in jail. The two others are still absconding. Ragib Ali is the vice-chairman of South East Bank, chairman of the trustee board of Leading University and former chairman of North South University trustee board. He founded Ragib-Rabeya Medical College in Jalalabad in Sylhet and many other organisations including local newspaper Dainik Sylheter Dak. He was widely known as Daanbir Ragib Ali for his financial contributions to many educational institutions.