UP chairman accused of beating husband, wife and child in Mirzapur
A UP chairman has been accused of beating a husband, wife and an eight-year-old child of the same family with a stick in Mirzapur upazila of Tangail. A video of the incident went viral on social media Facebook last Friday (July 3). The accused Bibas Sarkar is the chairman of Mahera Union Parishad (UP) of Nupur upazila. He is a member of the executive committee of the banned Mirzapur Upazila Awami League.
In the 51-second video, Bibas Sarkar is seen walking with a stick with some people. Later, he stood next to a pile of soil and abused a woman present there in obscene language. When the woman protested, the chairman first beat a man wearing a T-shirt with a stick. Later, when the woman came forward and tried to stop the beating, she was also beaten.
According to the relevant sources, the video was recorded on the morning of June 27. The incident is alleged to have taken place over a dispute over the dumping of soil on Basanti Rani’s land for the construction of a road in Teghari Keshav village of the union. The accused, Bibhas Sarkar, is also a resident of the same village.
According to local residents, about 40 years ago, Basanti Rani’s father Sunil Sarkar, local Upendra Mandal and a few others established a primary school on their land. In 2012, he registered the land in the name of his wife Minati Rani. After the death of Sunil Sarkar, the school stopped teaching about eight years ago. Currently, it is used only as a polling station for upazila and union parishad elections. In November 2021, Minati Rani registered the lands in the names of her two daughters Ratna Sarkar and Basanti Rani.
Basanti Rani alleged that her uncle Upendra Sarkar used to use the road in front of their house earlier. For this, some of their land was also given to her, where she built a house. Recently, their movement was hampered due to the construction of a boundary wall of the educational institution. Then, UP Chairman Bivas Sarkar took the initiative to forcibly build a road on their land on the south side of the boundary wall.
When they resisted, she, her husband Ramgopal Saha and their daughter Payel Saha were beaten up. It has been alleged that some trees along the government road were also cut down on the pretext of building the road. Basanti Rani said, the chairman is trying to grab our land by talking about the road. Whenever anyone speaks against him, he beats and abuses them. My eight-year-old daughter has also been beaten up. We are suffering from insecurity.
Some local residents, on condition of anonymity, said that many people in the area do not dare to speak out publicly due to fear of Bivas Sarkar. They alleged that he calls people and beats them up even for minor reasons. However, Bivas Sarkar denied this allegation. He said, that woman is not good. There is a space of five-six feet outside the school boundary. The woman blocked Upendra’s way. That is why we beat them with a shovel.
Former Chairman of Mahera Upazila Md. Badsha Mia said, “I heard that a responsible person beat up three people, including a child and a woman, with his own hands and I saw the video on Facebook. His actions could have been resolved through discussion.” Mirzapur Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Khan Salman Habib said that necessary legal action will be taken if anyone complains about the incident.
