Landowner’s son killed over dispute with developer

A landowner’s son was beaten to death allegedly by several staffers of a property developer and its hired goons over a dispute about handing over flats in the capital’s Hatirjheel area yesterday.
The deceased, Tanjeel Jahan Islam, 32, was a broadcast engineer at Deepto TV.
Saiful Islam, officer-in-charge of Hatirjheel Police Station, said four people, including Abdul Latif, an engineer of Pleasant Properties Ltd, were detained over the killing in the Mahanagar Project area.
There had been a longstanding dispute between the landowner and the developer company about the handover of flats, the OC said.
Speaking to The Daily Star, victim’s father Sultan Ahmed said he and two other landowners had entered a contract with the the developer company to build the nine-storey building. As per the contract, Sultan is supposed to get five flats.
The company handed over two flats in 2023, but delayed the handover of the remaining units despite having completed the building construction.
He said the developer company recently asked him to carry out the remaining work in a flat on the seventh floor at their own expenses, although the company was supposed to do it. “We started the work yesterday [Wednesday], but a group of staffers of the company barred us from continuing the work.”
Sultan said when the workers resumed the work under the supervision of his son, some 30 men, including staffers of the developer company, beat him up and his son around 10:00am yesterday.
He said that an attacker grabbed his son by the throat.
Tanjeel, who was critically injured in the attack, was rushed to Monowara Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead later.
“My son was killed in a planned way. I want justice,” Sultan said.
Quoting Sultan, OC Saiful said as per the agreement with the developer company, Sultan was supposed to get the flat on the seventh floor, but the company handed it over to a deputy director of the Department of Narcotics Control.
He said that engineer Latif hired the goons. Legal action will be taken against those found involved, he added.
Nur-e-Alam, caretaker of the building named Pleasant Jheel Arcade, said there had been a dispute over the ownership of three flats on the seventh floor.
A group of people, including Latif, reached the site on a vehicle around 9:30am yesterday. When the work started inside the flat on the seventh floor, they barred the workers, beat up Tanjeel and his father, and carried out vandalism inside the flat, he said.
Mahmuda Begum Lubna, Tanjeel’s aunt, accused the developer company of hiring outsiders to kill him.
The Daily Star could not contact the property developer over the phone for comments.
Morgue sources at the Dhaka Medical College said a fracture inTanjeel’sleft leg and injury marks on his hands and head were found during an autopsy.
OC Saiful said the filing of a casewas underway.