The Anti-Corruption Commission on Tuesday filed a case against four people on charges of grabbing 23.31 acres of land belonging to people of national minority communities through fraud and forgery at Bochaganj upazila in Dinajpur.
ACC assistant director Md Ismail Hossain filed the case with its integrated district office in Dinajpur, said ACC deputy director for public relations Aktarul Islam.
The accused are Abdul Khaleq, Abdul Latif Molla, Abdus Salam (Mintu) and Abul Kalam Azad (Ripon).
All the accused are from Murshidhat village at Bochaganj upazila.
According to the case statement, the accused, in collusion with each other, fraudulently transferred ownership of 22 deeds involving 23.31 acres of land at Sanamohol mouza under Rangao union of Bochaganj.
People of the Mahali and Santal national minority communities are the owners of the land, the statement said.
The commission found that the accused first took out a lease on the land based on an oral consent from poor owners of the land and later exploited their ignorance to change land titles through forgery.
In some cases, they allegedly used the name of a Christian Bengali, David Premnath, without his knowledge, to bypass restrictions on transferring land owned by national minority people.
The case statement said that the accused later mortgaged the fraudulently obtained land to Jamuna Bank PLC鈥檚 Setabganj branch to secure loans.
Under Bangladeshi law, no national minority person can transfer land to non-minority persons by sale, gift, or will without prior approval of the revenue authorities.
The case alleged that the accused violated this provision and committed fraud and forgery to grab the land in the 1977-2022 period.
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