POBNEWS24, Dhaka, June 1, 2024 : About 600 bighas of land in Gopalganj and Madaripur have been purchased in the name of former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Benazir Ahmed and his family members. Almost all these lands belonged to the Hindu community. They say that they had no choice but to sell the land. Lands have been bought from them by intimidation, force and various tricks.
It is known that Benazir Ahmed engaged a police officer to buy their land after talking to the Hindu families who went to Gopalganj and Madaripur to sell their land. Some members of police and RAB used to supervise the construction work of Benji’s family resort. Agriculture including watermelon cultivation has also been done with them. A police officer at the field level also admitted the matter to UNI. He said that the superior officers do not do anything when given instructions.
Benazir Ahmed bought these lands and built the resort during his tenure as IGP (April 2020 to September 2022) and Director General of RAB (January 2015 to April 2020).
One of the land sellers, Saraswati Roy (62) of Barakhola village of Rajair Upazila of Madaripur was asked why she sold the land? Saraswati started lamenting after hearing the question. she said, “How much trouble, I was buying land (31 percent) with interest.” Saraswati said, “Benjir is taken.” When asked who Benjir is, she said, “I heard that it is a big policeman.”
“If you don’t agree, the land will go, you won’t get the money either”
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) investigations have so far found 621 bighas of land in the name of Benazir Ahmed, his wife and three daughters, of which 598 bighas are in Sadar Upazila of Gopalganj and Rajair Upazila of Madaripur. Upazila two side by side. And Benji’s family’s land is also in the border area of two upazilas. The villages in that area are dominated by Hindus.
Benazir Ahmed has developed a resort there called Savannah Eco Resort and Natural Park. Rooms are rented out for people to stay in this resort. 100 rupees can be entered and visited. According to the information given on the resort’s website, there are various facilities including farms, boat trips, children’s play area and helipad.
The resort is in Bairagirtola, a remote village of Sahapur Union of Gopalganj Sadar Upazila. 27 members of land seller families went to that village and neighboring Domrashur village on Tuesday. 25 of them said that they did not want to sell the land, they were forced. Police inspector Taimur Islam scared them.
On condition of anonymity, a land seller of Bairagirtola village said that Benazir’s family had bought three bighas of his ancestral land. He said that police officer Taimur Islam used to approach the land owners on Benazir’s behalf. He would go and say, ‘I am a good officer, so I am arranging to get you some money. If you do not agree to sell, then the land will go and you will not get money.
Sanjay Bal, a young man from Bairagirtola village, is found in a tea shop near Savannah Eco Resort. He told Prothom Alo that Benjir had forcibly bought more than 30 bighas of his family’s land. When this land was sold in 2018 and 2019, Benjir was the Director General of RAB.
Land sellers said that Benazir’s people used another strategy for those who did not agree to sell. That is to buy the land around that land and prevent them from going there. As a result, common people were forced to sell their land. All the 12 land sellers of Barakhola village of Kadambari union of Madaripur Rajair said that they were forced to sell their land in this way.
Prashant Dutta of Barakhola village said, they are well-off. They had no need to sell land. They had no desire to sell their ancestral land. They three brothers sold 24 bigha land under compulsion.
Some Hindu families were forced to sell all their land. One such person is Saraswati Roy in Barakhola village of Rajair. According to her, her husband Niranjan Roy bought the land (31 percent) 20 years ago. He was forced to sell that land. Apart from this, they have 5 percent land and a small shack in their homestead.
Niranjan passed away. His son Ranjan Roy works as a daily wage earner and now runs the family. He said that the rice of the land sold to Benji’s family used to last them throughout the year. Now rice has to be bought and eaten.
Hindu community leaders have been complaining that Hindu lands are being grabbed or forcibly bought across the country for many years. The case of Benazir Ahmed is a recent example. Rana Dasgupta, general secretary of Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad, told UNI that threats, harassment and attacks are used to take away the land of minorities. They heard that Benazir Ahmed had done the same thing in Gopalganj. They will investigate it on the spot.
Registration showing the living owner as deceased
The land sellers say that none of them saw Benazir Ahmed, his wife and children while giving the land deed. Some were taken to the sub-registry office, some were taken to the resort to sign the land deeds.
There have been cases where some of the owners of the joint ownership land have bought the land even if they were found to be dead. The incident took place in the case of Pranab Biswas of Barakhola village in Rajair. They are three brothers. Pranab said his younger brother Purnendu Biswas migrated to India in 1988. He died there a few years ago. He (Purnendu) has two sons and two daughters, who live in India. Prashant Biswas, another brother of Pranab, went to India a year ago and never returned.
Pranab alleged that Benazir Ahmed’s family bought 142 percent of their three brothers’ land (about four and a half bighas) in a trap. In this case his two brothers are shown as dead and heirless. His sole signature was taken on the sale deed. He said, “Now the people of the area are saying that I have embezzled the land of the brothers. But under what circumstances I did this, no one knows.
According to Pranav, there was a dispute regarding the ownership of the land of his homestead. Taking that opportunity, a fake deed of his homestead land was made. Then the police officer Taimur Islam told him that if he does not sell the land near Benazir’s resort, he will be evicted from the homestead. Continued..
