Ragib Ali gets 14 years in jail

A Sylhet court on Thursday sentenced 14 years imprisonment to industrialist Ragib Ali in a case filed for embezzling the land of Tarapur Tea Estate.

The court also sentenced four others including Ragib’s son and daughter 16 years of imprisonment each. The court acquitted the caretaker of the property Pankaj Kumar Gupta.

The four others convicts are: Ragib’s son Abdul Hai, daughter Rozina Kadir, son-in-law Abdul Kadir and relative Dewan Mostak Majid.

Earlier, a Sylhet court sentenced Ragib Ali and his son Abdul Hai to 14 years in jail each in a case filed for forging signature and grabbing the land of an endowment property of Tarapur Tea Estate in the district.

He fled to India along with his family members through Jakiganj border on August 10, hours after a court ordered his arrest in two fraud cases.

Later, he was arrested in Assam, as his visa expired, and handed over to Bangladesh authorities through the Shutarkandi border.

The irregularities were first detected by a parliamentary standing committee in 1999, which recommended that the authorities take legal action against the grabbers. Based on the suggestions, the then land commissioner of Sylhet filed two cases with Kotwali police on September 27, 2005. But proceedings remained stalled for 11 long years.

In its final verdict, the Appellate Division on January 19, 2016 ordered the government to reclaim the land of the tea garden and revive the cases. In April, the Police Bureau of Investigation started re-investigation of the case and filed a charge sheet on July 10.