Hill Voice, 28 February 2023, Dhaka: Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad has strongly condemned and protested the incident of police brutality by breaking the lock of the house of Jyotin Adhikari at Dumuria village of Jeudhora Union of Morelganj Upazila in Bagerhat district.

Today Tuesday (February 28) in a statement signed by the Office Secretary Mihir Ranjan Howladar on behalf of the Central Committee of Oikya Parishad, it is said that such incidents of police torture will destroy the faith of the religious minority community on the law enforcement agencies. The Central Committee demanded an immediate fair and impartial investigation into the allegations against the police and local squatters and redressal of the abuse.

It is to be noted that on Saturday 25 February 2023 at around 1:00 PM, police raid he house of Jyotin Adhikari breaking the lock of the house at Dumuria village of Jiudhara Union of Morelganj. During the raid, idols of the deity were messed up and articles of worship and kirtan were broken. Sanjit Adhikari, Prasenjit Adhikari and their father Jyotin Adhikari have been living in this house for several years.

That night, Lakmikhali police outpost officer Sufal Sarkar along with village police officer Ranjit Mondal went in front of the house and started shouting for the house owners. As there was no one inside the house at that time, the police broke the lock and entered the house.

At that time, the village police collected their mobile numbers through Ranjit and told Sanjit’s brother Prasenjit Adhikari on the phone, “There is a complaint against you with the Officer-in-Charge. I am taking evidence from your home to the camp, you will contact Lakmikhali police camp at 10 am tomorrow.”

Sanjit’s brother Prasenjit tried to convince him in various ways that they want to reach there as soon as possible. But the victim’s family alleged that the police officer Sufal, without listening to them, took away various materials including wood and bamboo from the house. In no time they reached their house and found there some strangers including Chhattar Khalifa and Mujibur.

Seeing the presence of the Sanjits, they quickly left the spot. The people of their house including Sanjit, Prasenjit found that their house has already suffered a lot of damage, especially the idols of the temple deities have been broken randomly. Drums, dongkas were broken and ritual objects were smashed.

Sanjit Adhikari bought land there a few years ago in 2018 and built a new house. A person named Chattar Khalifa of the same area bought the same registered land. After completion of construction of the house on this land purchased by Sanjit started to stay at the house, Chattar Khalifa claimed that he was owner of this land. But Sanjit Adhikari won the local arbitration as everything was correct in the deed, chaudhdi, and mutation.

However, he did not escape the harassment of Chattar Khalifa. Finally Sanjit approached the court. Section 144 was imposed on this land. At the end of the court trial, the verdict came in favor of Sanjit. But despite getting the verdict, police officer Sufal vandalized their house without paying attention to them.