A retired sub-registrar, two former land officers and a lawyer have been charged for allegedly misappropriating 80 decimals of land, worth Tk12 crore, which belonged to a church and a cemetery in Sylhet city.
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Assistant Director Ismail Hossain filed the case with the anti-graft watchdog’s district coordination office in Sylhet on Tuesday.
The case was filed after the allegation was found to be true in primary investigation, said ACC Deputy Director Md Nur-E-Alam.
“The plaintiff will himself investigate the case,” DD Nur-E-Alam said.
The accused are the former sub-registrar Md Mujibur Rahman Patwari, real estate businessman and lawyer Sirajul Islam, former Sylhet union land assistant officer Md Asbah Uddin and Sylhet Sadar upazila land office’s sacked kanungo (a staffer) Moloy Kar.
No arrests were made as of 8:30pm on Tuesday.
According to the case dockets, Hangera Lusai was the custodian of the land in Bikari Bazar, which had been given to the local Christian community for prayers and burials. Later on, he formed a samity (association).
Hangera had been taking care of the land since November 2, 1947, which was mistakenly recorded as the government’s property in 1966. However, he managed to reclaim the land in 1979 through a mutation.
Afterwards, Hangera leased out parts of the land to several people. After his death in 1986, his son Jamingthanga Lusai started looking after the land.
In course of time, the accused in collusion with each other embezzled the land from him.
The original documents and statement of witnesses attest to the incident, read the case filed under five sections of the Penal Code and Section 5 (2) of the Corruption Prevention Act 1947.
