FBCCI director Ertaza on remand

A Dhaka court on Wednesday allowed the Police Bureau of Investigation to interrogate FBCCI Director Dr Kazi Ertaza Hassan to interrogate him in their custody for one day.

The PBI produced Ertaza before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court in the morning and Metropolitan Magistrate Mosharraf Hossain granted the PBI one-day remand.

PBI Inspector Mehedi Hasan appealed for a two-day remand while defence lawyer Kazi Najibullah sought bail for Ertaza.

PBI arrested Ertaza in Gulshan on Tuesday night in a case filed on charges of fraud and forgery for registering land with fake documents.

On January 10, Md Saiful Islam Bhuiyan, deputy managing director of Ashiyan Lands Development, filed the case on January 10, 2022, with Khilkhet Police Station accusing Abu Yousuf Abdullah, Reazul Alam, Selim Munshi, and six to seven unidentified persons.

The PBI on the same day arrested Dhaka University’s Institute of Business Administration Prof Abu Yousuf Mohammed Abdullah in Dhaka’s Banani, and later arrested Reazul Alam.

Kazi Ertaza Hassan is a member of Awami League’s central sub-committee on industry and commerce. He is also the editor and publisher of the Daily Vorer Pata, The Daily People’s Time.

Prof Yousuf is also the chairman of Northern University Bangladesh’s Board of Trustees and Prasad Nirman Ltd.

According to the case statement, the plaintiff made an agreement with the accused persons for selling a five-bigha land of Ashiyan Lands Development in exchange for Tk 50 crore in 2013.

After the agreement, the accused paid Tk 30 crore to the plaintiff and said they would pay the rest of the money later. After getting the Tk 30 crore, the plaintiff allowed them to start their project on the land.

When the plaintiff asked for the rest of the money from the accused in 2019, they said the rest Tk 20 crore was paid to plaintiff Saiful’s elder brother, Nazrul Islam Bhuiyan, managing director of Ashiyan Lands Development. Later, Saiful learned that the accused had illegally carried out registration of the land showing fake signatures and documents.