Village heads in Bhangura, Pabna, have fined two men Tk 4,65,000 over the alleged theft of one sack of poultry feed from a farm. The incident took place on 23 March in Jhabjhabia village of Astamanisha union in the upazila. It stayed hidden for a week before journalists learned of it on 31 March.

The fine was imposed on Nuruzzaman (50), a Jhabjhabia resident and farm worker, and Zaker Ali (45), a farm labourer from the same village. Many people describe it as oppression.

Mizanur Rahman, alias Ripon Molla, of Jhabjhabia village runs two poultry farms at his home. Nuruzzaman had worked there for the past eight months. On 5 March Nuruzzaman stole a sack of poultry feed and sold it to Zaker, a man from the same village. A few days later Zaker went to sell the same sack of feed to the farm owner, Ripon. Ripon recognised it as a sack from his own farm and reported the matter to the village heads, demanding an arbitration (salish) meeting.

On the morning of 23 March the village heads announced the arbitration over the loudspeaker of Jhabjhabia Jame Mosque. The next morning the salish was held on the Jhabjhabia graveyard ground. It was chaired by village head Yasin Sarkar, former vice-president of the Astamanisha union BNP. Also present were village head and union Awami League general secretary Wahed Ali, village heads Alep Pramanik, Abdus Salam, Azizul Haque, Abdur Razzak, Montu Sardar, Abdur Rahim, Afzal Hossain and Abdul Bari, former UP member Alam and Ripon's elder brother Habibur Rahman, among others. About 150 local people attended.

The salish fined Nuruzzaman Tk 3,10,000 and Zaker Tk 1,55,000, and the heads made them sign the arbitration document. They also collected Tk 1 lakh in cash from Nuruzzaman and Tk 40,000 in cash from Zaker, named at this point in the report as Jakir Hossain. The two were ordered to pay the rest of the fine within seven days.

The deadline for the remaining money ran out last Wednesday, but the two punished men cannot pay such a huge sum.

Yasin Sarkar, who chaired the salish, said: "It has been proved that Nuruzzaman sold one sack of poultry feed. Zaker did not steal the sack, but he was fined too for the offence of selling stolen goods."

Asked whether a salish could impose a fine of Tk 4,65,000, he said such a large fine had been imposed to keep order in the area.

A villager who did not want to be named said the verdict amounted to oppression, as the two have no means at all to pay.

Bhangura upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) Mohammad Nahid Hasan Khan said the matter would be investigated and legal action taken.

Bhangura police station officer-in-charge (OC) Rasidul Islam said he had heard about the village arbitration and the huge fine. Such a large fine by a village salish is being investigated, and legal action will follow, he said.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.