An allegation of grabbing a 15-decimal piece of land belonging to a Hindu minority woman has been reported at Baultali village in Sadar upazila of the Gopalganj district. All attempts made by the concerned authorities to recuperate the land have failed so far.
Poli Begum, wife of Mokhles Mollah, a resident of the village had built a house on the land belonging to Shantilota Sarker, wife of Omresh Sarkar about two months ago and started residing there with her family. Shantilota alleged that Poli threatened her to kill when she protested the action.
Local arbitrators in a meeting declared that Poli’s move was illegal and they directed her nephew, a Saudi expatriate Hanif Kazi to evict his aunt, but he left the country without taking care of the matter.
Circumstances being such, Shantilota on August 1 took the matter to local superintendent of police who directed Gopalganj Detective Branch of police to investigate into the allegation. On August 19, the probe committee of the DB reported that Shantilota is the actual owner the land and Poli has no claim.
Some influential persons of nearby villages dragged Poli to an arbitration on August 26 and she was ordered to remove her establishments within seven days.
Gopalganj DB police ASI Azizul Sheikh who was also investigator of the incident, said: “Poli Begum has failed to show any papers in favour of her claim on the land. After scrutinizing all documents, I have found out that Shantilota is the real owner of the entire piece of land although a small portion of the land had been bought by Poli’s nephew Hanif Kazi.”
“A local arbitration called to solve the problem gave the onus of evicting Poli to Hanif who went to the KSA without solving it. His aunt has been trying to grab the land illegally,” the ASI continued.
Baultali UP Chairman Sukanto Biswas echoed the voice of SI Azizul, saying that he himself in an arbitration directed Poli to remove her illegally built house, but she disobeyed the decision very stubbornly.
When contacted, Poli Begum denied the allegation of grabbing land, saying she was living on her nephew Hanif Kazi’s land and that was why she turned did not pay heed to the decision that came from the local arbitration.
Baultali police outpost SI Md Abu Naim too confirmed that Poli was asked to remove her establishments from Shantilota’s land within seven days, but she is yet to do so.
Shantilota urged the local administration to get her out of this crisis.
