A Patuakhali court today accepted a case against 14 local leaders and activists of BNP and its associate body Jubo Dal over allegations of abducting a cattle farmer, torturing him and demanding Tk 300,000 in ransom.
The case also names seven to eight unidentified individuals as accused.
Advocate Bazlul Haque Badal, counsel for the plaintiff, confirmed the development.
Bazlul said the victim, Nasir Uddin Mridha, filed a complaint with the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Nowrin Karim on Monday.
Today, the court took cognisance of the complaint and directed the district Detective Branch (DB) of police to investigate the allegations.
According to the case statement, Nasir, a cattle farmer from Char Algi village under Dashpara union in Bauphal upazila, was allegedly abducted from the Hetalia Bandhghat area in Patuakhali town around 1:15pm on July 2.
The accused allegedly took him to Bauphal, demanded Tk 300,000 in ransom, tied his hands and feet, and physically tortured him in an attempt to extort the money.
Police later rescued him from the Engineer Faruk Talukder Mohila College area in Bauphal after receiving information through the national emergency service 999, the statement said.
Nasir in the statement also alleged that he has been unable to return to his village as the accused are influential in the locality and he fears for his safety.
Masum Billah Polash, joint general secretary of Bauphal municipality BNP and one of the accused, denied the allegations.
“The plaintiff is a supporter of former Dashpara Union Parishad chairman ANM Jahangir Hossain, an Awami League leader. The case has been filed to harass us politically. None of us was involved in the incident,” he told The Daily Star.
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/news/politics/news/14-local-bnp-jubo-dal-men-sued-over-alleged-abduction-torture-cattle-farmer-patuakhali-4218201
