Ruling Bangladesh Awami League has nominated a rape accused for chairman post in the upcoming union parishad elections to Kola union of Sirajdikhan upazila in Munshiganj.
The rape accused is Mir Liakat Ali. He is currently serving as chairman of the union parishad.
The name of Mir Liakat Ali was found when the names of the ruling party’s chosen candidates were announced on Tuesday for the fourth phase of the ongoing union parishad elections.
Local sources said a video went viral on social media in 2017 that claimed that an eighth grader was raped at the office of Kola union parishad chairman Mir Liakat Ali. The mother of the reported victim girl lodged a lawsuit against two persons under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act with Sirajdikhan police station. Mir Liakat Ali was sent to jail when he went to the court. Currently he is in the jail.
Regarding the nomination, Sirajdikhan upazila Awami League president and the upazila parishad chairman Mohiuddin Ahmed told Prothom Alo, “Mir Liakat Ali is now in jail. A nomination paper was sent to us on his behalf. All of the nomination papers submitted from the upazila were sent to district Awami League. We don’t have the jurisdiction to exclude any name. District Awami League (leaders) can send the names they wish. They have sent the name of Liakat to the centre.”
Speaking to Prothom Alo about this, district Awami League general secretary Md Lutfur Rahman said, “Liakat is the current chairman of Kola union and former president of the union Awami League. Currently he is in the jail, but this is a sub judice matter. His son filed the nomination paper on his behalf. His name was sent along with others but it was mentioned that he is currently in jail. The central Awami League has announced his name as the party’s candidate.”
Responding to a question whether the upazila unit of Awami League can exclude the nomination paper of any controversial person before sending them to the district unit, Lutfur Rahman said, “Of course, the upazila committee can exclude names of controversial people before sending the nomination papers to us. We send to the centre the names we get from the grassroots level after checking those.”