Turag river encroachment: Two executives of Amin and Momin Developments arrested

A mobile court of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority or BIWTA has arrested two officials of a real estate company on charges of illegally filling the Turag River by starting a housing project.

They were arrested in a drive led by Executive Magistrate Mustafizur Rahman on Thursday evening at Basila of Mohammadpur, according to BIWTA Joint Director AKM Mohammad Arifuddin.

The arrestees are the Amin and Momin Developments Limited’s executive officers Md Awlad and Sohel Rana. Later, the mobile court handed them over to a nearby police station.

Allegations have it that the realtors were illegally constructing a housing bloc by occupying the Turag River at Katasur in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur.

In Oct 2014, the BIWTA and Dhaka district administration in a joint drive freed 25 bighas of land from encroachments in the area.

According to the Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh or REHAB's website, the Managing Director of Amin and Momin Developments is Md Tobarok Hossain.

No-one answered calls made to the phone number found on the company's website.

A Facebook page opened in the name of Amin and Momin Developments claimed that the company is ISO certified. But when the web address found on the page was clicked, a Chinese-language website was opened.