Journo arrested over attack on developer co staff

Police yesterday arrested a Jamuna TV journalist and two of his relatives for allegedly attacking a developer company employee in the capital's Bhasantek.

Enamul Haque Enam, joint news editor of the private television channel, his brother Abdullah Al Mamun and brother-in-law Mahadi Galib were arrested in their residence in Bhasantek following a case filed by Masuk Reza, managing director of the developer company Raian Real Estate.

Tajul Islam, sub-inspector of Bhasantek Police Station, said the arrestees were kept in their custody over pushing the company's employee Md Sabuj, 35, off the third floor of an under-construction building in the morning.

The victim was admitted to Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka, he added. Police said the developer company alleged that the attack was premeditated.

Enam's family, however, claimed that the victim fell on rods while he was trying to run away at one stage of a scuffle with the developer company's men.

"Some people of the developer company started knocking down our building's walls in the morning. We rushed there and protested it. But they started beating us and demolishing our furniture," Tania Chowdhury Nirjhor, wife of Enam, told The Daily Star.

Beaten by the developer company's people, Nirjhor was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, she claimed.

The incident occurred as Enam's father-in-law and the company signed an agreement in 2011 to erect the building in 30 months which expired in 2014, she said.

But the developer company couldn't complete the job, an allegation by Nirjhor denied by Masuk Reza.

There has been a long standing dispute over construction of the building between the company and the family, said SI Tajul Islam, also investigation officer of the case, adding that they were probing into the allegation.

Meanwhile, Law Reporters Forum President Ashutosh Sarkar and General Secretary Didarul Alam Didar condemned the attack on the family of Enam, also a senior member of the forum.

They demanded immediate release of Enam and action against the developer company's men.