So let me tell you a story.
Back in 2002 you signed a lease to rent out your building to a number of businesses all owned by the same family. You sign a 5 year lease with the tenants. The 5 year lease expired on September 30, 2007. You have given notice to your tenants that you will not renew the lease. September 30, 2007 arrives and passes, yet the tenants do not vacate your building.
Twenty-two days after the lease has expired, on October 22 2007, your tenants are seen installing a diesel generator on the roof of the building you own, without your permission. When you and your wife arrive to prevent the tenants from making modifications to the building you own, you are punched by the tenant and, on his orders, his goons set upon you with metal rods. You end up in the hospital. Your wife tries to intervene and is slapped by the tenant.
Three days after the incident, you hold a press conference trying to get some justice. Reporters attend your press conference but only one newspaper in the country decides to publish your story.
The story above represents the allegations made at a press conference in Dhaka on October 25, 2007 by Dr. Mahbub Islam and his wife, the landlords. The tenants are three companies – Adcom, Signage and Magnavision. Adcom is owned by Geeteara Safiya Choudhury, a current civilian Advisor of the military government of Bangladesh. The other two companies are owned by her husband, Nazim Kamran Choudhury, a former member of the Bangladeshi parliament. Dr. Islam and his wife allege that Nazim Kamran Choudhury and others assaulted them on October 22, 2007 at their own building, twenty-two days after the lease expired and after the three companies failed to vacate the premises.
Mrs. Geeteara Choudhury, who famously said back in April of this year that "I’m not thinking about human rights at this time, but my own", is one of the civilian faces of this military government – a government that claims as its mandate an "anti-corruption" drive. This government claims that it is doing away with abuse of power and corruption as it jails top politicians and hundreds of thousands of citizens under draconian laws. Yet, Geeteara Choudhury and her husband now face accusations of using their power to forcibly squat on someone else’s property. Mr. Choudhury also faces accusations of violent assault. This is a story of the powerful forcing their will on the powerless. This is a story of corruption and abuse of power.
Every day the Bangladeshi newspapers are filled with stories of corruption by the politicians that are being locked away by this military government. Every allegation is given prominent billing. Yet, the Bangladeshi media remains oddly silent about this story and these allegations.
Bangladesh now has an unelected unaccountable military government, with 11 unelected unaccountable civilian "advisors", leading the country on an "anti-corruption" crusade. Bangladesh now has a frightened and compliant media.
Now that I have told you the above story, do you think Bangladesh is headed toward more corruption or less corruption? Do you think under these circumstances the common citizen has recourse to the law vis-à-vis the unelected unaccountable "leaders"?
The predicament that the Choudhury family is in must seem like poetic justice to many. After all, this military-government has violated due process with casualness that borders on vulgarity.
Yet, Nazim Kamran Choudhury is man of great character, intelligence, and principle. He is one of the handful people in Bangladesh for whom I have tremendous respect. It is impossible for me to believe the allegation of physical violence against him.
To those who have written passionately about due process, let justice take its own course. Let us cease this trial by media and blog.
As a side note and at the risk of becoming highly unpopular with fellow bloggers let me say, that many of you seem completely unaware of how things are done in Bangladesh. Informality is part of the business culture. Many contracts are verbal in nature and based on good faith. So when Farhan (he’s married to my wife’s sister, BTW) says,
“…Then in February you meet with the landowners to discuss the renewal and you were given assurance of being done. You then follow up the next few months asking for the new agreement to be told that “why worry? it’ll come. you know how lawyers are. etc etcâ€. Then all of a sudden in June you are given an eviction notice.â€
I can readily visualise the air of informality in which the discussion had taken place, and how taken aback they were when the landlady adopted a legalistic tone.
I should also mention that false cases are a dime a dozen in Bangladesh. Just try to buy land here; you’ll have cases of extortion, attempted murder, etc. stacked up against you.
So, to my fellow bloggers, please stop sensationalising this story and let justice take its own course. Just because this military government has denied justice to thousands doesn’t mean that the Choudhury family has to suffer.
Do you really believe in guilt by association?
Hello Kaiser,
“To those who have written passionately about due process, let justice take its own course. Let us cease this trial by media and blog.”
Ans: Excellent Suggestions . You are correct we don’t know business practice in Bangladesh.
But I know how court of Bangladesh works. If
Law runs its own way is good. Other wise It is preparation of the Hijack of Due process which is prepared. You may have great respect for Nazim Kamran. It is not necessary that we have to treat your personal opinion as the final word. Nazim Kamran has relatives like you to speak on behalf of him. But I doubt if Victim does have any one like you.
Kaiser, sometimes a case like this becomes a touchstone for the larger questions. To be clear I have never said that NKC should not get due process, and any suggestions to that effect are patently false. He is also not being tried in the blogs or the media. The blogs and the media have reported on allegations of assault and other related issues about a person very closely associated with the power center of this government. It is an absolutely newsworthy story.
Now, you say that allegations of extortion, attempted murder. etc. are quite common in Bangladesh. If that is the case, then why are all these people caught up in the political purges of this government based on such allegations often times from people of ill repute or questionable motives? These people who are being accused are not being accorded ANY of the due process Mr Choudhury is being accorded. All have been hauled off to jail and denied bail. Why the double standard?
The remedy is not to also throw Mr. Choudhury in jail based on an allegation. The remedy is to extend the due process being accorded to Mr. Choudhury to all those who have thus far been denied that due process. As an integral part of the leadership of this government, Mrs. Geeteara Choudhury should be demanding these due process rights for those who have felt the wrath of this government, as vociferously if not more so than you, the friends and family of Mr. Choudhury, are demanding for him. I am with you in demanding due process for all. That has been my consistent position and it remains so. But I have also noticed that some have become advocates of due process when a government Advisor’s family is suddenly the target of an allegation, while they considered due process to be a rather low priority when the targets were this government’s enemies.
Finally, a word on what you call the “informality” of the business culture in Bangladesh. Others may very well call it “corruption”.
It is interesting to watch that all of a sudden so many people with so many motives trying to portray Mr. NKC as Asif Jardari (Benajir Bhutto’s Husband – Mr. 10% percent) of Bangladesh. Daily Dinkal published a report with painstaking detail just to punish him for joining LDP. I suspect another blogger being one of his ex employee who might have received an unpleasant farewell sometimes back. Anti CTG lobby, Adcomm rivals, Signage competitors, wannabe female CTG advisors in waiting, former BNP/AL law makers caught in corruption cases, anti Moin U Ahmed lobby in Army….who wouldn’t call it a great opportunity to catch fish in trouble water? Most interestingly, someone elderly from their own family showed up here pulling out his/her one leg from grave to take on ‘Champa’s father for suing family members sometimes in eternity after all these years! I am now waiting for someone from Dr. Muhammad Shaidullah’s (Mrs. Choudhury’s Grandfather) era to come forward with a historical proof of a cursed family saga to explain the recent behavior of her spouse in question! There’s a proverb in Bangla: “Hati gorte porle Bang eo lathi mareâ€!
Well, I am not saying that the allegation against him is false. Just it is very much contrary to his soft spoken and modest personality as I found him being his employee for quite sometime. Yes, it is very much possible that a heated brawl was taken place on that day between two parties, may be some random force were applied to stop the opponent from taking control of the situation; It is even possible that upon facing some provocation from other side, Mr. NKC had lost his temper and counter attacked with inappropriate language. May be his hand accidentally touched Mrs. Islam’s face at some point…she tipped over and her sari got torn (But the allegation that Mr. NKC torn her sari in order to molest her at that point would be a way too wild imagination even for a 70’s Hindi movie scriptwriters! Even Aziz Mohammad Bhai wouldn’t choose that moment to entertain his famous superhuman libido!…It is clear that Mrs. Islam has intentionally chosen the word “Slilotahani†to frame him which was in reality a mere “damage of personal outfitâ€â€¦thank god, she didn’t pose without her sari sitting beside his husband with a plastered leg a week after the alleged incident happened!)
And can anyone show any other example that he tried to exploit the status of being family memeber of a CTG advisor before? Nobody questions present BNP general secretary for his ‘gem’ sons’ repeated criminal involvement, they never question BNP chairman for her sons’ mass exploitations either just because they are ‘innocent until proven guilty’? So is Mr. NKC! Who would belief that he has guts to occupy that property forcefully using his newly found influence as a spouse of a CTG advisor when all powerful General Moin even had to face arrogant questions from reporters? (Even he could not stop the media from publishing allegations against him! And Adcomm’s spoke person Mrs. Nahar managed to achieve that by promising only Tk. 50,000 worth of ad for the newspapers! Why? Where was Bana Huda who allegedly deployed Tk. 50 crore during the DU Student-Army riot to speed up the fall of the government? Was not it a missed opportunity for him who could easily out bid Mrs. Nahar’s offer so that newspaper make it a red 8 column headline instead of a complete blackout? If an agency like Adcomm has that bargaining power, surely client like Khaja Baba or Shorpo Raj whose ad never missed an issue of daily like Manavzamin or Ittefaq after independence should have more influence than all ad agencies of the country combined!
VJ Beral 54# I guess you have not come out of your Colonial Mentality.
Basically I think you have some wrong motive to divert the whole topic to another angle.
Can you please tell us who is this employee? Fact is that you guys are representing the society of those Gulshan-Baridhara circle where you can live on the skyscraper but you don\’t have any idea of the foundation.
So you people are scared to see the ground. We have not come here to know the character certificate of NKC from you. Because neither of you is a saint that you will feed us the sleeping tablet. Now the things are under Judiciary. If Judiciary is really independent we will know the truth. We at least don\’t need your lecture.
Between the Devil and the Deep Sea,
Can you please explain what is your version of ‘wrong motive’ and ‘another angle’ that you are so afraid of?
Most of the contributers here could not deliver beyond ” I have heard that Mr. xyz had done this before so 2+2=4..” while I am contributing with some fact with the help of my first hand experience regarding NKC’s character which you don’t need any certificate for because you are crafting your own in order to throw some mud at to satisfy your general hatered towards “Gulshan-Baridhara circle”.
Anyways, I am not in position to force anyone to believe my ‘lecture’ as long as readers prefer to live in the fools’ heaven with their own belief…carrying the same weight as my version does, not more than that.
Again, I didn’t witness the incident in question, (Neither did any of the readers here)I was only suggesting that considering the same accounts everybody already know, we can draw some alternative conclusions using little bit logic and common sense which everybody overlooked I guess.
Note that I didn’t say that the allegations are all fabricated like the choudhurys insisting, though you hinted that I did it because I belong to the same clan, even as a employee! If I could afford to live at Gulshan-Baridhara along with these elites I would not be their employee then! And where have you found skyscrapers in Gulshan?
Adcomm even can’t afford to have thier own office space for god’s sake!…one must need to live in 100 feet deep hole in the ground to visualize a humble 5 story building as another Enron headquarter! I may not have any idea about the foundation as I am rotting there too high but people like you are buried under it and fambling is your only way of feeling the light above.
The most funniest of all was if you already know ‘we’ are no saint then why the hell are you waiting for the judiciary system? Enough muds have been thrown in already in this blog from both sides in the form of “my speculation is better than your speculation”, now everybody suddenly shows up in closed collar and waiting for the judge to clean up the mess! I am sure, if the verdict goes against your fantasies, you’ll start throwing mud again…this time aiming at the judges (Remember, most of them have properties at your ‘axis of evil’ Gulshan-Baridhara) I am sorry to say but in the name of freedom of expression, now a days blogs have turned into a so called intellectual’s effigy burning platform.
I am proud that at least I was not engaged in throwing mud to anyone, I tried to clean it instead…It is ok if anyone call my mentality ‘colonial’ for doing so.
Well Mr VJ Beral-
I have no problem to answer your question but I feel my answer is hidden on your own explanations on 54#/.
Way you are describing, “It is even possible that upon facing some provocation from other side, Mr. NKC had lost his temper and counter attacked with inappropriate language. May be his hand accidentally touched Mrs. Islam’s face at some point…she tipped over and her sari got torn.”
Is it your assumption or you were eye witness? You should know that there are two type of evidence always working
1) Direct Evidence , 2) Circumstantial evidence.
Basically in the civilized society we can’t even think to hit any lady in front of the public. But Your such statement indicates that
one person who was the ex parliamentarian could not restrict himself to the physical
harassment to a Lady. If he behaves like that way at least NKC never deserved the same respect from WE stupid common people.
Now I like to shed on this light-
“where have you found skyscrapers in Gulshan?
Adcomm even can’t afford to have thier own office space for god’s sake!…one must need to live in 100 feet deep hole in the ground to visualize a humble 5 story building as another Enron headquarter! I may not have any idea about the foundation as I am rotting there too high but people like you are buried under it and fambling is your only way of feeling the light above.”
Ans: Mr Beral It seems you are really a well
educated person. Please kindly don’t insult
your intelligence. You also understand here
the word “SKYSCRAPER” is symbolic. your this comment only shows that how bankrupts you elites are.You people don’t have any relation to the root.
Now let me tell ask you one question against your this blanket comment
“I am sure, if the verdict goes against your fantasies, you’ll start throwing mud again…this time aiming at the judges.”
Boss how can you know so early that Verdict will go against our so called fantasies? Are
you planning to go to the famous Kangaroo court of CTG where verdict are pree defined?
I advise you to read the the comments of 15#
of Robin_Milford.
At last
“I am sorry to say but in the name of freedom of expression, now a days blogs have turned into a so called intellectual’s effigy burning platform.
I am proud that at least I was not engaged in throwing mud to anyone, I tried to clean it instead…It is ok if anyone call my mentality ‘colonial’ for doing so.”
Ans: Sir I guess your Censor of press and Jurisdiction could not reach in blog sphere.
Just I am thinking what happened If you people are getting the power of George Bush
Mr Veja Beral of Gulshan -Baridhara.
M. Emad
Nazim Kamran Choudhury: ‘Old habits die-hard’?
This refers to the news report “Landowner sues Nazim Kamran Choudhury†(The Daily Star; November 15, 2007). According to the news, Mrs. Farhana Islam, a landowner, filed a criminal case with the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court against Nazim Kamran Choudhury (husband of the industries adviser Geeteara Choudhury) and 8 others including their Indian son-in-law and Geeteara’s brother alleging that after the termination of rental contact Nazim illegally kept staying at her building in Gulshan-2 without paying any rent and other bills. According to Farhana in the court, Nazim Kamran Choudhury and his men beat up her and tugged at her sari when they made a bid to ‘usurp the property†on October 22. As Gulshan police refused to register the complain, Farhana had to move to the court. On the other hand, the Magistrate recorded statement but did not pass any order on the issue.
Nazim Kamran Choudhury is not an ordinary person – an ex-BNP lawmaker (MP), political theorist, businessman and above all a top NSF (National Student Federation) leader of the ’60s. If allegation against Nazim Kamran is correct it again proves that ‘old habits die-hard’.
Mrs. Farhana may not have heard of NSF if she was born after 1971. Just after taking over power illigally, Ayub Khan created NSF to propagate his (military) ideology. Under the full patronage of East Pakistan Governor Monem Khan (and his sons) and ‘Dacca’ University VC Dr. Osman Ghani, NSF introduced guns, violence-terrorism, election rigging, ‘cadre’/ ‘muscleman’, rape etc. in and out of campus. The names ‘Pach-pattur’, Khoka, Altaf etc. has became synonymous with Ayun-Monem era. However, not all NSF members are the same – military back current Caretaker Government’s Chief Adviser, Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed (a brother-in-law of Nazim Kamran Choudhury; who recently declared crusade against 3 Ms – Money, Muscle and Misuse of power) was a brilliant and well-reputed student. Another NSF member, Shaheed Bodi, Bir Bikram, fought valiantly in Pakistan military occupied ‘71 Dhaka city.
As the people of Bangladesh too easily forget their past/ history, they repeatedly fall pray to the same old things – both at personal and national levels.
One hopes that the newly ‘independent’ court will soon resolve this matter neutrally.
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