A court in Barisal has ordered the jailing of five people, including the ruling Awami League’s Bakerganj upazila unit President Shahidul Islam Hawlader, over allegations of land grabbing through creating false auction decrees, documents and pamphlets (parcha) through forgery.
Shahidul is also the union parishad chairman of Darial union.
Barisal Chief Judicial Magistrate Mahibul Hasan issued the order after rejecting their bail prayer on Wednesday.
The other accused are AH Rashid Hawlader, Abul Hossain Hawlader, Tahidul Islam Hawlader and Sahanur Begum.
According to the case documents, UP Chairman Shahidul Islam prepared a fake auction decree in 2015 in order to grab Narendra Nath Pal’s 702 decimals of land which he inherited.
In 2016, Shahidul tried to take possession of the land illegally by producing the false decree.
Narendra Pal discovered that the auction decree was fake and Shahidul had used it to create counterfeit documents and pamphlets (parcha) and recorded the ownership of 3 acres 53 decimal of Narendra’s land in his own name.
Moreover, Narendra’s two aunts, Jaya and Geeta, along with one Hemayet Hossain, used their names to forge another land-related document which was shown to have been executed from the Satkhira sub-registry office in Khulna district.
On November 4, 2019, Narendra Pal lodged a case against 10 people, including Shahidul, after which the court directed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe the matter.
On September 14, 2020, CID Inspector Md Selim submitted a report to the court accusing nine people.
After the submission the court issued summons against the accused, who failed to appear before the court.
On December 12, 2020, Senior Judicial Magistrate Judge SM Mahfuz Alam issued an arrest warrant against them.
However, they appeared before the High Court on December 22, 2021 and received six weeks of interim bail.
The bail expired on Wednesday, after which five people who surrendered were sent to jail.
Earlier on Tuesday, two more accused, Jaya Rani Pal and Geeta Rani Pal, surrendered in court and were sent to jail.
