Bid to grab journo's house suppressing HC order
A person trying for long to grab the residence of an elderly journalist has secured a High Court stay in a case involving the property, allegedly suppressing its earlier order on the same issue.
Journalist Abdur Rahim, the owner, said Shahjahan Mollah, a dismissed school teacher now out on bail in another case filed for fraudulence, had tried to sell the house on Road 26 at Gulshan in the city using a false power of attorney.
The fraud case, now pending with a court of additional chief metropolitan magistrate of Dhaka, was filed by Rahim on May 5, 2008 following Shahjahan's attempt to sell the property to a real estate company.
Rahim said an HC bench of Justice Nizamul Huq and Justice Syeda Afsar Jahan on February 24 last year had rejected Shahjahan's petition for quashing the fraud case.
Gulshan police had arrested Shahjahan and two other accomplices in connection with the case of 2008, he said.
But Shahjahan, suppressing the rejection order, has secured the stay order from another HC bench in a case he filed with second assistant judge's court in Dhaka in 2006.
In the case, he stated one Abdul Mannan is “illegally occupying the house” and needed to be evicted.
Rahim, former executive editor of The Bangladesh Observer, said the HC bench of Justice Sharif Uddin Chaklader on April 24 this year stayed the proceedings of the eviction case for six months.
"Shahjahan claimed his ownership over my house by virtue of a power of attorney obtained from his fictitious uncle Abdur Rahim," he said.
The veteran journo said he is the real owner of the house and has possessed it for 43 years. He is not that Abdur Rahim, who is a “relative” of Shahjahan Mollah.
He became a party in the eviction case following an order of the second assistant judge on April 1, 2010 as Shahjahan failed to prove existence of the relative before the court.
On November 10, 2010, the District Judge's Court in Dhaka upheld the order of the second assistant judge permitting Rahim to become a party to the eviction case.
It also directed both parties to appear before it with relevant documents on May 5 this year. Abdur Rahim was present at the court with necessary papers.
Shahjahan did not show up. But his lower court lawyer Iqbal Hasan placed the stay order passed by Justice Sharif Uddin's bench, causing a further delay in the five-year-old eviction case.
Rahim said he recently filed a petition with the bench of Justice Sharif Uddin, seeking an order for quick disposal of the eviction case and justice.
Justice Sharif Uddin on June 19 declined to accept the petition, saying he would consider it on resumption of the court after vacation.
The vacation began on Sunday and the court will reopen on July 10.
Shahjahan's HC counsel Mohammad Ali told The Daily Star that he did not know anything about the rejection order of February 24 last year. And, they got the stay order on the basis of the documents of his client.
However, Abdur Rahim said he himself informed Mohammad Ali about the HC rejection order. A section of lawyers are doing the tricks with the court.
Shahjahan could not be reached despite repeated attempts.
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