Special Correspondent

A meticulous documentary investigation by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has busted a highly sophisticated land forgery syndicate operated by two brothers in Mirzaganj Upazila. The specialized police unit has submitted its final investigation report to the court, confirming that the suspects forged historical documents, manipulated public records, and even faked structural logs to grab over six acres of prime ancestral property worth crores of taka belonging to a local resident, Md. Ruhul Amin.

Following the submission of the CID report, the Senior Judicial Magistrate Court of Mirzaganj took the findings into immediate cognizance and issued arrest warrants against six individuals involved in the racket. Mirzaganj Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) confirmed that local police units have received the judicial warrants and are executing synchronized raids to apprehend the fugitives.

The primary mastermind behind the operation has been identified as Md. Abdul Barek Sikdar, 52, the second son of the late Ismail Sikdar, a resident of Chhailabunia village under Mirzaganj Upazila. According to the CID investigation led by Inspector (Unarmed) Biplob Mistry of the Patuakhali District CID, charges under Sections 406, 420, 467, 468, 471, 506(ii), and 114 of the Penal Code—pertaining to criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery of valuable security, using forged documents as genuine, and criminal intimidation—have been definitively proven against Abdul Barek Sikdar and his five siblings: Md. Abdul Khalek Sikdar, Abdul Kuddus Sikdar, Rokeya Begum, Aleya Begum, and Mst. Rehena. The CID Headquarters in Dhaka officially vetted and approved the submission of this final probe report to the court.

The fraudulent scheme unraveled after the legitimate landowner, Md. Ruhul Amin, filed a criminal case (CR Case No. 111/2025) before the Senior Judicial Magistrate Court to defend his ancestral holdings in the Chhailabunia Mouza. The court initially assigned the local Sub-Registrar, Digbijoy Gain, to verify the land records before transferring the case to the CID for a comprehensive forensic and archival inquiry. During the probe, Inspector Biplob Mistry retrieved the original historical volume registers (Register Volume No. 02/1963) of the Khepupara Sub-Registrar's Office from the archives of the Amtali Court in Barguna. The principal accused, Barek Sikdar, had submitted a certified copy of a deed numbered 883, dated April 18, 1963, claiming that his late father, Ismail Sikdar, had purchased the disputed land from sellers named Bonde Ali, Mofez, Sohorbhanu Bibi, and Rohmjan.

However, forensic verification of page 83 of the authentic government volume register revealed that Deed No. 883, registered on April 3, 1963, actually belonged to a completely different transaction executed by a donor named 'Meser Ali Molla'. The names of the sellers cited in Barek's document had no biological or legal existence in the official archives. CID officials noted that Barek chose the 1963 date calculating on the historical fact that the actual Balam volumes of the Khepupara Sub-Registry Office were destroyed by the catastrophic cyclone and tidal surge of 1965. Taking advantage of the missing public records, the syndicate manufactured an entirely fabricated deed with simulated administrative stamps.

The investigation report outlined multiple glaring anomalies within the forged deed itself, showing that the document cited three conflicting calculations of the land area. The first page noted 6 acres 75 decimals, the schedule section at the end recorded 7 acres 21 decimals, while a mathematical aggregation of the internal donor shares totaled 9 acres 71 decimals. Furthermore, on the first page, the serial numbering of donors jumped directly from number 5 to 8, completely omitting numbers 6 and 7. While the text claimed there were 9 donors, the document carried the signatures and thumbprints of 10 individuals, highlighting a clumsy copy-pasting structure.

The investigation further exposed that to legitimize their illegal possession, the syndicate engaged in repeated, redundant purchases of the exact same property. Although Barek claimed his father bought the land via the 1963 deed, records show they purchased the same property again through separate deeds from the Betagi Sub-Registry Office in 1980 and 2002, and yet again from the Mirzaganj Sub-Registry Office in 2005. The CID report noted that there is no logical legal basis for an individual to repeatedly purchase their own inherited land, cementing the conclusion that the foundational 1963 deed was an outright fabrication used to initiate subsequent fraudulent transfers. Furthermore, previous civil pre-emption suits (No. 02/2003 and 148/2023) filed by Ismail Sikdar and his sons based on these fraudulent claims had already been summarily dismissed by the civil courts.

The CID inquiry revealed that Barek Sikdar's predatory practices extended into his own household. Statements recorded under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure exposed a deep family tragedy. The accused's elder brother, the late Abdul Rob, had spent decades doing grueling labor as an expatriate worker abroad, remitting crores of taka to Barek with instructions to purchase local land under Rob's name. Instead, Barek embezzled the entire remittance pipeline, building luxury properties and assets under his own name in Subidkhali and Mohammadpur. When Abdul Rob returned to Bangladesh and demanded a financial accounting of his life savings, Barek refused, causing intense emotional distress that eventually led to Rob suffering a fatal stroke. In a rare move of internal family defiance, the late Abdul Rob’s widow, Mst. Rabeya Begum, stepped forward as a direct prosecution witness, giving a detailed deposition to the CID regarding Barek's systemic financial fraud and mistreatment of her late husband and orphaned children.

The final probe report also documented active criminal intimidation and detailed witness depositions regarding the immediate threat to the victims. On April 28, 2025, when the complainant, Md. Ruhul Amin, alongside witnesses, visited Barek Sikdar’s residence to confront him regarding the forged records, Barek and his brother Khalek Sikdar grew aggressive. They openly threatened the victims, boasting that they had already successfully mutated the records based on the forged deed and threatening to murder Ruhul Amin and conceal his corpse if he did not vacate the land. Fourteen independent witnesses, including the local Union Parishad member, formally corroborated this encounter during the CID's field depositions.

When reached for comment regarding the judicial warrants and the fraud findings, the accused brothers, Barek and Khalek Sikdar, responded aggressively, challenging the journalistic inquiry. Subsequently, a proxy caller contacting on behalf of the accused reached out to this correspondent, issuing verbal threats to suppress the publication of the report. Law enforcement officials have confirmed that police tracking units are currently deployed to track down and arrest the rogue land-grabbing ring.