A defamation suit of Tk10 crore has been filed by an executive engineer against the Bahubal UNO in Habiganj.
Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) Engineer, Gomal Md Mohiuddin Chowdhury, filed the case with the court of Habiganj District Senior Judicial Magistrate Sultan Uddin Ahmed Prodhan, on Wednesday, against UNO Jashim Uddin, for physical assault.
After hearing the matter the court in the evening directed the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) to investigate the matter, confirmed the plaintiff’s lawyer, Niladri Shekhor.
Another two-three people were accused in the case, including UNO Office Assistant, Haripad Das.
In the case details, the plaintiff mentioned: “On March 6, the UNO sent his office assistant Haripad to get a signature on a Tk2 lakh bill regarding a soil extraction job at the Karangi River in Satkapon union of the upazila.”
As Haripad failed to show relevant documents of the work the executive engineer for that, did not sign the cheque. Later, Haripad said: “It is the UNO’s order for you to sign the cheque,” but Mohiuddin refused.
Hearing this, the UNO with two-three men went to Mohiuddin’s office and mentioned his designation as executive magistrate and gave orders to arrest Mohiuddin.
The executive engineer was locked at the UNO’s office. As the news spread, Habiganj Upazila Executive Engineer, Zakir Sekander, informed higher authorities of the matter.
Later, Mohiuddin was released upon signing a bond.
Video footage of the incident went viral online which created disturbances in the region.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the matter came to the attention of the High Court.
Later, a High Court bench comprising of Justice FRM Nazmul Ahasan and Justice KM Kamrul Kader, issued a ruling concerning why Engineer Mohiuddin was handcuffed as it is a violation of the law and ordered UNO Jashim to be present in court and give his explanation of the matter on April 6.
The UNO said: “The engineer was confined inside his room by the employees of the UNO office. I later went there and rescued him from them and brought him to my room. I did not break any law, whereas, I took steps to rescue the engineer instead.”
LGED Engineer Mohiuddin meanwhile said: “The UNO does not have the authority to ask for this according to the law, as these things comes from the union chairman and the bill he sent regarding soil extraction in not even in the list of categories for items in the allotted fund.
“He (UNO Jashim) unethically pressured me to sign the cheque.”
Bahubal police station OC Md Mashuk Ali said on the day of the incident the UNO called him and asked to send an emergency force to his office. He had accordingly sent a police team.
“The UNO also said there will be a mobile court session at his office and told us to be there. The police did not arrest the engineer,” said OC Mashuk.
