The Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) submitted a charge sheet to the respective court on Sunday against 90 persons in a case filed over attacking the village dweller Santals in Gobindaganj upazila of Gaibandha district on November 6, 2016 that left three tribal people dead.
Former Sapmara Union Parishad Chairman Shakil Akhand Bulbul, Rangpur Sugar Mills General Manager (Finance) Nazmul Huda and union parishad member Shah Alam are among those included in the charge-sheet, PBI Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Abdul Hai told newsmen. The ASP submitted the charge sheet in the court of Gobindaganj Senior Judicial Magistrate, Partha Bhadra yesterday at about 10.30 am.
Twenty suspects have been arrested so far and one of them gave a confessional statement to the court, said the ASP. Meanwhile, police recovered some goods looted from the Santhal village.
On November 6, 2016, a tripartite clash broke out between the Santals, staff of Rangpur Sugar Mills Limited
and police over the eviction of the tribal people from the disputed land at Shahebganj cane farm of Rangpur Sugar Mills Limited. The clash left three Santal men dead and 20 others, including nine policemen, injured. Santal houses were reportedly flattened with tractors later that night.
On behalf of the tribal community, Swapan Murmu filed the case with Gobindaganj Police Station on November 16 of 2016.
During the Pakistan time in 1952, the government had acquired 1,840 acres of land in Shahebganj to set up a sugarcane farm. The DC office acquired the land for the then Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation, which subsequently set up Rangpur (Mahimaganj) Sugar Mills Limited between 1954 and 1957. In 1962, the DC office, on behalf of land owners, signed an agreement with the corporation. The deal stated that the land was acquired for cultivation of sugarcane by the mill authorities. The corporation would return the land to the government if it was used for farming any other crop.
However, the deal was violated by the mill authorities as they leased out most of the land in 2004 for cultivation of rice, wheat, mustard, tobacco and maize.
The Santals reportedly started building houses on the land about six months ago after they learnt that the mill authorities were planting other crops violating the deal.
