Hundreds of Santal community people on Sunday blocked the Dhaka-Rangpur Highway for an hour demanding correction of the charge sheet submitted in a case filed on the charge of the attack on a Santal village centering the eviction of the ethnic people from the disputed land adjacent to the Rangpur Sugar Mills in Shahebganj of Gaibandha district in 2016.
The Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) on Wednesday submitted the
charge sheet without mentioning the names of policemen.
The demonstrators under the banner of Shahebganj-Bagdafirm Bhumi Uddhar Songram Committee brought out a procession at 10:00am from Bagdafirm and paraded the important thoroughfares in Shahebganj.
Later, they staged a sit-in programme in Char Matha area on the Dhaka-Rangpur Highway for one hour.
Terming the charge sheet “biased and manipulated”, Philimon Baske, President of the committee, said PBI had dropped the names of the main accused from the charge sheet.
“Proper investigation was not carried out for preparing the charge sheet,” he alleged, demanding correction of the charge sheet and preparing a fresh one with the names of the main accused included in it.
On November 6, 2016, a tripartite clash broke out between the Santals, staff of Rangpur Sugar Mills, and police over the eviction of the ethnic people from the disputed land ofShahebganj cane farm adjacent to Rangpur Sugar Mills. The clash left three Santal men dead and 20 others, including nine policemen, injured.
