Shahjahan Ali Manon, Nilphamari District Representative:
Nilphamari's Saidpur police have arrested Botlagari UP Chairman Moniruzzaman June on charges of sabotage during the July-August mass uprising. He is the general secretary of the Awami League of that union. He was arrested from his home on Tuesday (February 11) afternoon.
According to police sources, Nur Islam of Uttar Sonakhuli village of Botlagari union was shot in the leg by the accused on August 4, 2024 at Panchmatha intersection in Saidpur town. In view of this, he himself filed a case with the police station on September 6 of that year, naming 63 people. Case No. 4. Moniruzzaman June is the second accused in the case. Therefore, he has been arrested under Operation Devil Hunt.
Although the accused in this case had fled, June remained at his home and regularly attended the Union Parishad to conduct activities. He even used to travel to various offices including the Upazila Executive Officer's office and roamed around the city day and night. He moved with a lot of authority.
After the political scene changed in the mass uprising, 2 cases were filed at the Saidpur Police Station on various charges including sabotage in Saidpur. One of them, the case of vandalism, looting and arson of the Saidpur Political District BNP office, was filed by Sheikh Bablu, the general secretary of Saidpur Municipality BNP. The other case was filed by Nur Islam, who was shot.
Although the main accused have been absconding since the case was filed at 2 am, the police have not arrested them for unknown reasons, even though several people, including UP Chairman Jun, have appeared in public regularly. Despite widespread criticism and pressure from various sources, including social media, the police remained silent. The allegation was that just as BNP leaders have bargained to remove the names of many people from the case file in exchange for money, the police have also bargained not to arrest the accused.
Finally, the government launched Operation Devil Hunt, forcing the police to take action and for the first time, they arrested a suspect in the case.
In this regard, SI Mehedi Hasan Khan Maruf, the investigating officer of the case, said that a drive led by Syedpur Police Station Officer-in-Charge (Investigation) Akhtar Hossain and Second Officer Abu Bakar Siddiqui, arrested UP Chairman Moniruzzaman Jun, an accused in the sabotage case, from his house. He has been sent to the Nilphamari District Jail.
It is worth noting that Moniruzzaman June has been involved in widespread irregularities and corruption since becoming the chairman of the Awami League. He started behaving recklessly under the umbrella of former reserved women MP Mahila League central leader Rabeya Alim and Saidpur Upazila Awami League general secretary Mohsinul Haque Mohsin.
He also treated journalists with disrespect for publishing news about his irregularities and corruption. He even detained and beat up three journalists when they went to the UP premises after receiving news of VGF rice theft.
Moreover, when VGF rice was seized while being smuggled from the LSD warehouse instead of being distributed, the administration recovered it and sold it. Although an investigation committee was formed in this regard, nothing happened due to the pressure of the Awami League. Since the administration remained silent, more thefts took place in June. They brought a special allocation of 97 lakh taka through the DO letter of the female MP and embezzled all the money by showing a nameless project.
Similarly, there are allegations of harassment and various forms of harassment against political opponents. In continuation of this, he was involved in various atrocities in the name of party activities during the July-August mass uprising. Despite the inhumane treatment of the students and the people who were against discrimination by the police, he did not hesitate to oppose the activities of the current government in various ways on his Facebook page and also spread propaganda.
Shahjahan Ali Manon
Nilphamari District Representative
