A mobile court in Shariatpur’s Damudya upazila fined a local BNP leader Tk 200,000 and sentenced another person to four months in jail for illegally cutting and selling soil from agricultural land. The verdict was delivered at 8:45 p.m. on Monday in Uttar Syedbasta village under Koneshwar Union. The court found that fertile farmland soil had been excavated using an excavator and sold elsewhere, damaging both the land’s productivity and a rural road built by the Local Government Engineering Department.

According to the mobile court, Shafik Madbar received a four-month non-rigorous imprisonment for illegally cutting soil, while Ibrahim Member, a former joint general secretary of Koneshwar Union BNP and current union council member, was fined Tk 200,000 for supplying the excavator. In default of payment, he will serve three months in jail. Another accused, Sohel Bepari, was not found at the scene, and police were instructed to file a regular case against him.

Assistant Commissioner (Land) Zahidur Rahman stated that illegal soil extraction harming farmland fertility is punishable under the Balumahal and Soil Management Act, 2010, and the Land Crime Prevention and Remedy Act, 2023.