Wari DC suspended for ‘helping grab’ freedom fighter’s land

Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Wari Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has been suspended for his alleged undue backing to a local encroacher in grabbing a piece of land owned by the family of a martyred intellectual at the Old Dhaka’s Lalbag area.

The police official – identified as Ibrahim Khan – has also been attached to Police Headquarters.

Mostafa Kamal Uddin, secretary to Home Affairs Ministry, issued a gazette to this effect on Monday.

On September 28 last year, a gang of land grabbers, led by two brothers Sheikh Jabed and Shiekh Abed, forcibly evacuated the family members of AKM Shahidullah, brother of martyred intellectual AKM Shamsul Alam Khan, from their two-storey house, said DMP’s Joint Commissioner (crime) Shaikh Nazmul Alam while talking to The Business Standard.

Shamsul Alam had been killed by the then Pakistani Military Junta while he was the deputy commissioner of Cumilla Mohkuma. After the independence in 1971, his mother got four kathas of land from Bangabandhu Shiekh Mujibur Rahman at Lalbag area.

His brother Shahidullah built the building on the land and started residing in it with his family.  

In collusion with DC Ibrahim Khan, the land grabbers demolished the building to construct a multi-storey shopping mall there.

Later, the victim family went to Bangshal police station to file a case, but they were just allowed to lodge a lawsuit for petty theft.

The family lodged a complaint to Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr Mohammad Javed Patwary that the then Lalbag DC Ibrahim Khan allowed the local gang, in exchange of money, to grab the land.

After getting the complaint, the IGP directed the DMP to investigate the matter.

A four-member probe body, led by Shaikh Nazmul Alam, completed the investigation and found Ibrahim Khan guilty.

As per the report, the Home Ministry took the decision.