A local leader of ruling Awami League (AL), also a running union parishad chairman in Kishoreganj upazila under the district, has issued a certificate in favour of a convict for submitting it to a Nilphamari court along with his prayer for bail in another case.
Convict Sachindra is now in jail, along with three other accused, for setting fire to Hindus’ houses in the village on 19 May last year.
The arson was made to bully the minority people into selling land at low prices as desired by Noor Islam, an Urdu speaking businessman of Saidpur municipality in the district, who wants to set up a jute mill in the area, the victims said.
Earlier on 19 May 2012, Sachindra was awarded one year and six months’ imprisonment by Senior Judicial Magistrate Abdul Kuddus in a case for assaulting and injuring Hindus in connection with grabbing of their land.
Sachindra is a member of a notorious land grabbers’ syndicate in Dakkhin Bahagli Kacharipara village of Kishoreganj upazila who act as hired hoodlums for wealthy land buyers and force Hindus to sell land at very low prices, locals said.
The syndicate also assaulted Hindu men and women of the village and implicated them in a number of false cases to exert pressure upon them to realise vested interest, they said.
But Ataur Rahman, organising secretary of Kishoreganj upazila unit of AL, also chairman of Bahagli union parishad, in his certificate termed Sachindra as an honest man who was never involved in any subversive activities.
Meanwhile, after about one and a half months in jail as convict in 2012, Sachindra appealed to higher court against the verdict and was freed on bail.
On the night of May 19 last year, Sachindra along with three others belonging to the land grabbers syndicate set fire to the houses of three Hindu families at Dakkhin Bahagli Kacharipara village in Bahagli union, locals said.
One of the victims, Bobita Rani, filed a case with Kishoreganj police station the next day and the case investigation officer submitted charge sheet to the court duly.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Shahadat Hossain Pramanik on November 28 sent Sachindra and three others to jail, rejecting their bail prayer.
The lawyer of the accused on Tuesday submitted the certificate issued by the UP chairman along with other papers in favour of Sachindra and prayed for bail.
The court, however, rejected the prayer and ordered sending him to jail again.
