A court in Dhaka on Wednesday granted a one-day remand to question daily Vorer Pata Editor and Publisher Kazi Ertaza Hassan in a case filed over forgery and fraudulence.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mosharraf Hossain granted the remand after Police Bureau of Investigation produced him before the court with a remand prayer for two days.  

PBI Inspector Mehedi Hasan appealed for the remand while defence lawyer Kazi Najibullah sought bail for his client. After hearing, the court granted a one-day remand.

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During the court proceedings, the PBI said that the Ertaza has made fake documents by using officials of the Sub-Registrar’s office, and some other accused can be arrested with information taken from him during the remand.

Saiful Islam, brother of Ashiyan Group Chairman Nazrul Islam, filed the case with Khilkhet Police Station on January 1, 2022, naming four people. The other three accused are Abu Yusuf Abdullah, Chairman of the trustee board or Northern University, Riazul Alam and Selim Munshi.

Sources at the PBI said that Ashiyan group and Northern University are at loggerheads over land dispute. The campus of the Northern University used to be at the building where the office of Vorer Pata was located.

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According to the case statement, Yusuf had chosen a 5 bigha plot at Ashiyan Group’s project site in the capital’s Dakkhinkhan area for buying in 2013. On August 3, 2013, an agreement was signed between Northern University and Ashiyan Group on a Tk 300 non-judicial stamp at a cost of Tk 50 crore.

The agreement mentioned that the money was to be paid within August 30 of that year. But, Northern University paid only Tk 30 crore and embezzled Tk 20 crore by making forged documents falsely signed by Ashiyan Group Chairman Nazrul Islam. The fake document also showed the price of the land to be Tk 9.3 crore.

Yusuf and Riazul were earlier arrested by PBI. The information found during their questioning led to the arrest of Ertaza.