A Hindu family alleged that the management of an agriculture farm had filed a case against them in a bid to harass them and thus grab their land at Bhaluka upazila in Mymensingh.
Priyonath Chandra, 82, a resident of Dhamshur village, filed a general diary with the local police seeking protection from any kind of harassment by the farm authority.
He said he owned eight acres and 23 decimals of land as per records of rights and government khas land settlement policy and had been the owner for around 60 years. He recently sold two acres of land to Shahjalal Agro Limited.
On September 22, the Shahjalal Agro Limited management filed a case against Priyonath Chandra, his two sons Jagadish Chandra, 37, Raghunath Chandra, 21, and his daughter’s husband Kajol, 24, on charges of robbing them of Tk20 lakh and demanding Tk50 lakh as extortion.
On October 8, the accused appeared before court in the case. They were then arrested and sent to jail. After being behind bars for 10 days, they came out on bail on October 17.
Octogenarian Priyonath Chandra told the Dhaka Tribune that the farm authority had filed this case against him and his family only to grab his land because they were not satisfied with what they had already bought from him.
He said Shahjalal Agro Limited owner Shahjalal Majumder had also once tried to assault him at his office, adding that they were now making threats in various ways to “evict my family.”
His son-in-law [daughter’s husband] Kajol said this agriculture farm had already grabbed forest land, worth Tk 2-3 crore. As locals protested such actions, the farm authority filed two false cases against them.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Habirbari Forest Beat Officer Saiful Islam echoed him and said they had filed a case against the agriculture farm owner on charges of erecting structures illegally on government land.
The court however issued an order in favour of the farm owner and then they again appealed to the court against it, he said.
Farm owner Shahjalal Majumder told the Dhaka Tribune that he has become the owner of 12 acres and 73 decimals of land after having bought the land from seven to eight locals, adding that a court had also given an order in favour of him after the forest department objected to his land ownership.
Mentioning names of several influential local Awami League leaders, he said they all were aware of it.
