A case has been lodged against Shafiqul Islam Sentu, presidium member of Jatiya Party (JaPa), for allegedly beating a business owner, his father, and employees for extortion.
Sentu, Ward 31 councillor of Dhaka North City Corporation, along with seven others have been named in the case filed on Tuesday night with Mohammadpur police station.
They are Jatiya Party local leader Selim, business leader Babul, Abul Mondol, Md Salam, Md Labu, Md Chowdhury, and Md Mohon.
Plaintiff of the case, Torikul Islam runs a shop “Singapur Juice and Coffee Bar” at Town Hall Bazar of Mohammadpur.
On September 20, Sentu sent his employee Kamrul to Torikul’s shop to tell him to meet the councillor with Tk5 lakh, as per the case docket.
Torikul refused to pay any extortion money, which resulted in Sentu coming to his shop the next night with some men and beating up Torikul. They also attacked Torikul’s employees when they came forward to save him.
The plaintiff said during the scuffle, Sentu brought out a gun from his waist and hit Torikul’s father’s head with it. The group assaulted the customers who were at the shop at that time as well.
Shafiqul Islam Sentu couldn’t be reached for comment in this regard.
However, the local Jatiya Party leader Selim denied the allegations saying no such incident like extortion or fighting took place. He said the councillor went there to clear the footpath.
Police are yet to arrest anyone over the issue.
Sentu was recently interrogated by the Anti-Corruption Commission as part of an investigation of a list of 200 people allegedly involved in acquiring major projects by bribing, embezzling government money, and siphoning off money earned from casino businesses.
