The High Court has constituted a committee to investigate allegations of irregularities in the allocation of plots at Purbachal New Town in the name of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her family members.
Justice Miftah Uddin Chowdhury, a retired HC judge, will lead the three-member committee. Two others on the committee are advocate Jashim Uddin Sarker and engineer Alamgir Hasin.
The committee has been asked to submit a report to the court in four months.
On Thursday, the HC bench of Justice Fatema Najib and Justice Sikder Mahmudur Razi passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed by 10 Supreme Court lawyers challenging the legality of the allocations.
In a rule, it also asked the respondents to explain why they should not be directed to cancel the plots of Hasina, Sheikh Rehana, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, Saima Wazed Putul, Radwan Mujib Siddiq Bobby and Azmina Siddiq Rupanti.
The court also wanted to know why rule 7(3) of the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (allotment of land, plot, space and flat) Regulations 2024, which is ultimately a substitution of rule 13(A) of the Dhaka Improvement Trust (allotment of lands) Rules 1969, shall not be declared unconstitutional.
Housing and law secretaries, Rajuk chairman, Purbachal New Town project director, Hasina, Rehana, Joy, Putul, Bobby and Rupanti, Anti-Corruption Commission chairman have been made respondents in the rule.
Muhammad Misbah Uddin, who appeared in the court hearing on behalf of the petitioners, said Hasina herself took the allocation of a 10-katha plot at Rajuk's Purbachal New City project.
In 2022, 10-katha plots were also allocated to Joy, Putul, Rehana, Bobby and Rupanti allegedly in violation of existing laws and regulations.
According to the writ petition, Hasina and her five other family members were granted plots by the use of power arbitrarily.
The petitioners are Md Rezaul Islam, Al Reza Md Amir, Md Golam Kibria, Mohammad Harun, Md Belayet Hossain Suza, Kamrul Islam Regan, Hasan Mahmud Khan, Md Zillur Rahman, Shahinur Rahman Shahin and Md Ismail Hossain.
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