Rezbin Hafiz, chairman of ‘Peoples Footwear and Leather Goods’, a leather goods manufacturing factory and a woman entrepreneur, who also won SME award in 2020 alleged that some local influential people were attempting to grab her factory located in Srikhondia area of Ashulia in Savar, on the outskirts of the capital.
She alleged that she could not pay the demanded extortion money of taka one crore as per their demand. The group carried out multiple attacks on her factory since July 22. The woman entrepreneur further alleged that she even did not get legal assistance from the police despite lodging written complaints with Ashulia police station on June 23.
She even later sent a written complaint to Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police Headquarters bringing allegations against Ashulia Police of harassing her instead of giving legal assistance on July 17. Bangladesh Post obtained copies of those complaints filed by the victim.
However, Abdullahel Kafee, Additional Superintendent of Dhaka Zilla Police (Crime) told The Bangladesh Post, “The allegation not to giving cooperation to her is false, as we held meetings several times with both the parties before, even supposed to hold another meeting on the issue after Eid-Ul-Adha. In the meantime, she broadcast live video on social media sites.
“The incident was not true as she claimed. So far as we know the factory, which she claimed to have bought, is basically a joint-stock company, and there are many shareholders. But she claimed she bought it from one shareholder. Therefore, we asked her to bring all the buying documents after Eid and she also gave her consent to this. However, discussion ongoing at the police station regarding the issue in presence of both the parties”, he added.
Hafizur Rahman, husband of Rezbin Hafiz told The Bangladesh Post, “We established our factory in 2011, with little investment, which later went bigger day by day. At a stage, we bought a readymade factory with its machinery namely ‘The Shoe Maker Ltd’, from Rezaul Haque, the owner of the factory, which was set up on a rented land of around 8 thousand sq feet area in Srikhondia, Ashulia, where we started our factory operation later.”
He alleged some influential people namely Salman Haydar, 40, Foysal Haydar, 42, Forhadul Islam Shahin, 40, were attempting to grab our factory for the last few days, claiming that they had bought the factory from somebody else, though they could not show any documents. Even they carried out attacks on us several times since June 22 last. Lastly, they dumped trucks of sands before my factory gate last night, July 18, Sunday.
Rezbin Hafiz told the Bangladesh Post, the accused were demanding taka one crore as extortion for the last few months and at a stage they attempting to grab my factory when I clearly refused to give them the extortion money.
She further alleged that police harassed her instead of giving cooperation despite lodging a written complaint.
However, Bangladesh Post could not reach Rezaul Haque, who had sold the factory to Rezbin Hafiz, and the accused despite making several phone calls.