Published : 07 Nov 2026, 08:55 PM
Updated : 07 Nov 2026, 08:55 PM
Leaders of the National Citizen Party (NCP) have torn down a signboard bearing an heir’s name at the Cumilla home of Language Movement veteran and 1971 martyr Dhirendranath Dutta.
They say they learnt the owners were trying to sell the house and want it preserved as a memorial museum.
The NCP leaders went to the house beside Dharmasagar in Cumilla city after dusk on Friday, witnesses said. They first spoke on the need to preserve the house, then smashed the signboard.
A video of the act has spread on social media.
Dutta is remembered for demanding on Feb 23, 1948, that Bangla be made a state language of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly alongside Urdu and English.
Pakistani troops took him and his son Dilip Kumar Dutta from the house on the night of Mar 29, 1971. They were never heard of again.
He was posthumously awarded the Independence Award in 1997.
Though calls to renovate and preserve the house and set up a museum have been made over the years, nothing has been done.
Dutta’s granddaughter Aroma Dutta recently hung a signboard claiming to be the lawful heir.
It read that she is the rightful owner by inheritance, as the daughter of the late Sanjib Dutta, and gave the plot, Mouza and Khatian numbers.
Aroma is the daughter of the martyr’s elder son Sanjib Dutta. She was a reserved-seat MP in the 11th and 12th parliaments.
In a media statement that night, NCP Cumilla city unit Member Secretary Masumul Bari Kawsar said the house is a national heritage tied to the language movement and the Liberation War, and must be preserved by the state rather than traded privately.
Kawsar said the NCP learnt that the signboard had gone up and the old structure was removed as part of an effort to sell the house.
“We broke the signboard to stop the sale. We have no other motive. We hope the government and Aroma Dutta, as heir, will stand by us,” he said.
Aroma, a former MP, said the property is ancestral and she is its lawful heir, so whether to keep or sell it is her personal matter.
“It is sad that a legitimate signboard was broken at night. I will inform the administration,” she said.
Touhidul Anwar, chief of Kotwali Model Police Station, said it is not known who broke the signboard.
Legal action will follow an investigation if a written complaint is filed, he added.
