DHAKA: Property Developers are supposed to enter a sacred trust to develop the property entrusted to them by the owners of land.
Yet a new development company called D.D.B.L. has been accused by land owners of using subterfuge to try to illegally occupy and grab land from the owners.
The M.D. of this company, one Engineer Shudhangshu Chandra Biswas, is the accused in almost a dozen financial fraud cases in lower court.
Moreover, D.D.B.L. is not even a member of REHAB, the first sign of a reputable development company.
Investigations have revealed that D.D.B.L. (Designers, Developers, & Builders Limited, Reg: No. C-78063/09 dated 15-06-2009), was established in 2009 and signed land development deals in 2009-2010 with property owners in several areas of Dhaka, including Dhanmondi, DOHS, and Uttara.
Yes, the company has utterly failed to successfully complete any projects on these properties. In two cases, even RAJUK permission has not been obtained in four years, surely a new record even in Bangladesh! In one case, the owner of a property in Uttara has, after waiting for four years, agreed to sell the land to the developer company’s own agent.
Sources reveal that Engineer Shudhangshu Chandra Biswas’ main profession was as a land broker, working as the go-between for land sales in various locations such as Savar, Gazipur, and Mogbazar. He was also employed as an engineer for a development firm, and in that capacity built the house of a senior official.
Using those connections, he established the company D.D.B.L. and began signing up properties.
An investigation of documents in the lower court reveal there are multiple cases now active against Engineer Shudhangshu Chandra Biswas.
Most involve land fraud, loan default, document forgery, etc. In a Dhanmondi court filing, 50 year old Farida Yasmin has alleged that Biswas took her original land documents by force and refused to return them (CR No: 1548/2012).
In Gulshan, one Deepak Kumar Boral has filed a suit alleging that Biswas borrowed 3.94 Crore BDT and has refused to return it and his checks have been dishonored at Biswas’ State Bank of India account (CR No: 582/2014). Other cases have been filed in Tejgaon (225/2014; under section 138 and 140), Dhanmondi (620/13; under 206 and 420), and Mohammadpur (225/204; under 138). In Banani, a GD has been filed against Biswas for physical altercation against an apartment buyer in one of his buildings.
According to court documents, Biswas has an account with the Gulshan branch of State Bank of India. This bank account is named in CR No: 582/2014 by plaintiff Deepak Kumar Boral as the location where Shudhangshu Chandra Biswas’ checks were dishonored multiple times.
Now both banks and persons who have had financial dealings with Biswas are afraid that money has been siphoned to India. The concern now is that Biswas may flee at any time to India, leaving his debtors in the lurch.
The Bangladesh National Parliament passed the landmark “Real Estate Improvement & Management” Act of 2010 to regularize and professionalize the property development business. Noting the high incidence of fraud by development companies, the act has put in stringent new laws that support the landowner.
In clause 6-(3) of the act, it is specified that until final RAJUK permission is obtained, a development company cannot enter into any agreement, or take baina, against future sale of an apartment. However, even though D.D.B.L. failed to get RAJUK permission for several of their plots, MD Biswas has gone ahead and taken Crores of baina money from various gullible buyers.
Especially migrants who live in the Middle East and send money home are often unaware of the new laws as of 2010, nor are they able to check matters such as RAJUK permission status from overseas. Such naive and helpless families have been fully exploited by D.D.B.L. Learning of the fact that RAJUK permission has not been obtained, these families are now futilely chasing Shudhangshu Chandra Biswas and his associate Abdur Rob to get back their money.
Meanwhile, Biswas also established a shopping center called S. S. Mart (TIN 037-201-8500) at Dhanmondi Road 3 (Dr Rifat Ullah Arcade) in early 2011. That company has now gone bankrupt. Employees of both S.S. Mart and DDBL are owed many months of pay and are now searching for M.D. Shudhangshu Biswas. It is alleged that Biswas was siphoning money received from gullible apartment buyers to S.S. Mart. Biswas also has an account with Gulshan branch of State Bank of India, and it is alleged that money received from various people, as well as bank loans, have been siphoned off to India.
Alerted by the news of various legal cases against Biswas, land owners who signed with D.D.B.L. are taking legal steps to ensure safety of their land so that it does not go into the hands of unscrupulous land grabbers or third parties. Yet, in spite of all the cases against him, M.D. of D.D.B.L is unapologetic and refusing to own up to his misdeeds.
BDST: 1906 HRS, SEP 19, 2014
