July uprising lawsuits: Personal feuds, property grabs, extortion behind implicating individuals ‘arbitrarily’

After the birth of his daughter, business person Ismail Hossain Pradhaniya, 48, was at Monowara Hospital in Siddheshwari, Dhaka, with his wife. From there, on 5 May last year, he was arrested by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Detective Branch (DB). He is accused of being involved in the murder case of Md Riaz at Bhatara police station.

Following his arrest, DMP stated in a press release that Pradhaniya faced murder cases from the July Uprising across several police stations in the capital. In those cases, his identity was recorded as general secretary of Ramna Thana Swechchhasebak League.

Court records in Dhaka show that Pradhaniya was granted bail in the Riaz murder case on 18 June last year. On the same day, he was shown arrested in another case at Bhatara police station, where his designation was listed as joint general secretary of the central Swechchhasebak League. However, his name does not appear in any central or thana-level committee of the Swechchhasebak League.

Md Riaz was shot dead in Jatrabari during the July Uprising. Two cases were filed in Jatrabari and Fatulla last year, and a third case was registered at Bhatara police station. Pradhaniya spent 109 days in jail in connection with this case. Legally, one incident cannot lead to three separate cases.

Investigations revealed that due to disputes over control of an apartment and shopping complex, Pradhaniya was falsely portrayed as a Swechchhasebak League leader and made an accused in the July murder case.

Pradhaniya was released on bail on 22 August last year. He recently told Prothom Alo, “Being trapped in false cases has nearly ruined my life and family. I am still bearing the consequences of these cases.”

An investigation by Prothom Alo reviewing 100 cases has found that the accused include not only leaders and activists of the ousted Awami League, former ministers, and MPs, but also many common people from various professions who were broadly or harassingly implicated.

Behind the inclusion of such individuals are personal, business, or professional disputes, property grabs, extortion, case-trading, or revenge motives.

In some cases, financial transactions are also alleged. In two cases, three deceased individuals were even listed as accused.

Thirty-two complainants admitted that they included people they did not know as accused. Many later submitted affidavits to the court stating that the inclusion was unintentional. In at least 47 cases, applications were filed in court to remove the names of over 600 accused.

In these cases, financial exchanges ranged from Tk 20,000 to Tk 400,000. In one Chattogram case, after the complainant told the court they had no objection to the bail of two accused, they were briefly detained, then released on bond.

Allegations indicate that in such harassment-based accusations, political party leaders and activists, a certain group of unscrupulous lawyers, police officers, and various case-centric networks were involved.

There is also trade in showing arrests in other cases (even if names are not on the charge sheet) after bail has been granted.

In these situations, the accused or case-trading networks often relied on the assistance of certain police officers. At least 15 victims told Prothom Alo that they had to pay bribes to obtain relief from cases. In one instance, a complainant was even punished by the court in connection with such a case.

Relatives of the martyrs are also angered by the harassment of innocent people being made accused. Shahidul Islam Bhuiya, father of Shaheed Farhan Faiyaz, a student of Dhaka Residential Model College, told Prothom Alo, “Seeing the pace of justice, I have begun to doubt whether we will receive justice for my son’s killing.”

He said, “I feel bad when I hear that innocent people are being made accused or arrested instead of the actual perpetrators. We want the actual perpetrators to be caught, and no innocent person to suffer harassment”

Regarding the findings of the investigation, the then inspector general of police Baharul Alam was contacted on 18 February.

He told Prothom Alo that if no involvement in a crime is found during investigation, police superintendents have been instructed to submit interim investigation reports to the court on their own initiative.

According to the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs, the list of martyrs from the July Uprising currently includes 832 names. The inclusion of 12 more names is under process. The list of injured people contains the names of 14,369 individuals, as of 8 March.

After the fall of the Awami League government during the uprising on 5 August last year, families who lost relatives began filing cases. In addition, some cases were filed by relatives or individuals identifying themselves as ‘conscious citizens’.

Hundreds of people have been made accused in these cases. In many instances, individuals who were harassingly implicated were also given designations linked to the Awami League or its associate and affiliated organisations.

Because of this, the previous interim government repeatedly stated that no accused should be arrested without verification after a case is filed.

In addition, on 10 July last year, an amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure created the provision to submit interim reports during investigations, allowing innocent individuals to be relieved from cases. However, the arrest and harassment of innocent people have not stopped.

Police sources said a total of 1,841 July-related cases have been filed. Of them, 791 are murder cases. Charge sheets have been submitted in 46 murder cases as of February. Among other cases, charge sheets have been filed in 94. Interim reports have been submitted in 638 cases after no involvement was found for 4,285 individuals.

Additional inspector general of police (crime and operations) Khandaker Rafiqul Islam told Prothom Alo on 8 March that in some cases related to the July events, individuals were made accused intentionally or by mistake. In some instances, the location of the incident was falsely mentioned.

After review, final reports have been submitted and new cases have also been filed where allegations were not found to be true, he added.

The additional IGP also said 10 monitoring teams, formed with senior officials, are overseeing cases across the country. Investigating officers have been instructed not to arrest anyone without verification.

Relatives say that Riaz was killed by police gunfire in Jatrabari on 5 August 2024. His body lay on the road. His wife, Farzana Begum, identified him after seeing a photograph. She later filed a case over her husband’s killing at Jatrabari police station on 14 November that year.

However, even before Farzana Begum filed her case, another case over the same incident had already been lodged on 23 October at Fatullah police station in Narayanganj. The following year, on 25 April 2025, a third case related to the same incident was filed at Bhatara police station in Dhaka by a man named Zahidul Islam. In that case, 281 people were named as accused, with another 300 listed as unidentified suspects. Among those accused was businessman Ismail Pradhaniya, along with many others, who were allegedly implicated in a harassing manner.

Investigators later found that the address given for the complainant, Zahidul Islam, could not be verified. No one by that name was found at the location, and the mobile phone number listed in the case documents was switched off.

Farzana Begum, the widow of July martyr Riaz, told Prothom Alo that she did not know those who had filed the cases in Bhatara and Fatullah police stations. She alleged that the cases were filed to harass people, intimidate them and extort money.

Sub-Inspector Md Anwar Hossain of Bhatara police station said the complainant Zahidul Islam could not be traced and preliminary investigation had not found evidence supporting the allegations.

Police later learned that Zahidul was associated with several cases, including one involving Abed Ali, a former driver of the Bangladesh Public Service Commission who had been arrested in connection with a question-paper leak.

Another police source said Zahidul himself faces seven cases in different police stations, including charges of fraud.

This has raised questions about why the Detective Branch of police was so proactive in arresting a businessman based on a complaint filed by such an individual, especially when both the interim government and senior police officials had repeatedly instructed that no arrests be made without proper verification.

Ismail Pradhaniya said that he had been accused not only in the Bhatara case but also in five other cases related to the mass uprising filed at Jatrabar, Paltan, Kotwali and Ashulia police stations.

He alleged that a man named Nasir Uddin, also known as Dulal, was behind the cases due to a long-standing dispute centred on Fortune Shopping Mall and an apartment complex in Mouchak.

Pradhaniya serves as joint general secretary of the shop owners’ association at the mall as well as the apartment owners’ association. At least 28 cases have reportedly been filed in different police stations against 11 members of that owners’ association.

Attempts to contact Nasir Uddin Dulal on three mobile numbers were unsuccessful. Two numbers were switched off. When another number was reached, the person answering disconnected the call, saying it was a wrong number as soon as he heard about the allegation.

Victims also alleged that Nasir Uddin used a group of serial litigants led by Saiful Islam Bahar to file such cases. When contacted, Bahar denied the allegations, saying that although he personally knew Nasir Uddin, he had no involvement in his activities.

The name of Kazi Ashraf Ahmed Riaz appears on the list of July martyrs. A case over his killing was filed at Mohammadpur police station on 2 July last year. The case named deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina along with other top leaders of the Awami League and 94 additional accused.

The inclusion of five names has raised questions. They are Faruk Hossain of Mirpur DOHS, Ashiqur Rahman of Pallabi, Nurul Amin Pramanik of the Cantonment area, Monowarul Islam and Ahsan Habib. The five are joint owners of a piece of land in Joar Sahara adjacent area, adjacent to the Kalshi Road area and have no known political affiliation.

In a petition submitted to police, the five individuals said their land lies along the roadside. The adjacent plot is owned by Masud Ali and his associates, who signed an agreement with a housing company to construct a condominium complex. According to the landowners, Masud Ali’s group attempted several times to seize their land in order to complete the project and, after failing, implicated them in the July murder case.

Masud Ali, however, denied the allegation of attempting to grab the land and said he knew nothing about the case.

When contacted, Kazi Babul, the father of the deceased Ashraf, said he knew only four or five of the accused from the Awami League and was unfamiliar with the others. Asked how the names of the five landowners appeared in the case, he replied that he could not explain everything.

One of the landowners, Faruk Hossain, told Prothom Alo on 9 March that the national identity card numbers included in the case were likely collected from land documents and inserted into the complaint.

Later it was learned that the same five individuals were also named in another case related to the mass uprising filed at Bhatara police station.

Ahmed Food Products is a well-known company in Bangladesh’s processed food market. Its managing director Minhaz Ahmed also serves as treasurer of the Bangladesh Agro Processors Association (BAPA).

On 16 June last year, Detective Branch police arrested him from a BAPA iftar gathering and annual general meeting in connection with a murder case.

Along with Minhaz, the association’s general secretary and owner of M/S Ahmed & Company, Md Iktadul Haque, was also arrested. A total of nine businessmen associated with the organisation were named as accused in the killing of Md Mahadi Hasan (Pantha), filed at Jatrabari police station.

Investigations found that two cases had been filed over Mahadi Hasan’s death, one at Jatrabari police station and another at Kadamtali police station. The first case, filed on 6 October 2024 by a man named Md Nadim, who claimed to be the victim’s uncle, named the nine businessmen as accused. Later, on 8 November 2024, the victim’s father Md Jahangir Hossain filed another case over the same incident at Kadamtali police station.

Nadim identified himself to Prothom Alo as a member of the Demra unit of the Krishak Dal, the farmers’ wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. He said he had been instructed by the party not to speak publicly about the case.

However, the victim’s father Jahangir Hossain said he had never met or even heard of Nadim before. He added that many people had complained that Nadim was filing cases as part of a “case-trading” business.

Minhaz Ahmed’s mother and chairman of Ahmed Food Products, Suraiya Ahmed, said her son took a long time to recover psychologically even after being released on bail following 85 days in jail.

She alleged that rivals defeated in the association’s election had implicated the entire panel in the July murder case out of hostility.

Sarwar Khaled, managing director of two housing companies in the capital’s Mohammadpur area, said at least 14 cases had been filed against him in different police stations.

He alleged that local criminals had demanded extortion money after the mass uprising and, when he refused, he was implicated in multiple cases.

Nearly a year and a half has passed since the mass uprising. Although the government and police have taken some steps to curb case-trading, allegations of harassment continue.

Md Nur Khan, a member of the National Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh, said many people had been accused simply to humiliate them or extract money. In some instances, the same person had been accused of crimes committed in multiple locations on the same date.

According to Nur Khan, this clearly indicates that many cases were not filed through proper procedures.

He said the government should urgently review these cases, noting that thousands of people across the country have been affected. Many cannot stay in their homes or attend their workplaces due to the cases against them.

He emphasised that the authorities should quickly verify the allegations and ensure that innocent people are freed from harassment.