{"id":40766,"date":"2017-02-23T19:08:11","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T13:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalpress.hinduismnow.org\/?p=40766"},"modified":"2017-02-23T19:08:11","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T13:38:11","slug":"contractor-builds-temple-land-cheated-hindu-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/?p=40766","title":{"rendered":"Contractor builds temple on land cheated out of Hindu family"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nA contractor has been accused of seizing land belonging to a Hindu family and constructing a temple on their lands, in Bandarban\u2019s Balaghata area.
\nLocal sources said that in 2005, a Nihar Kanti Barua purchased some 1.66 acres of hilly land in Balghata. Since then Nihar has been regularly paying the property tax according to the Bomang Circle Property Law. After Nihar passed away, the land was claimed by a locally influential contractor named Molin Kanti Das as part of another holding. Molin built a temple called Sarbojonin \u00a0Hari Mandir.
\nMolin was allegedly able to seize the land because Nihar\u2019s son Tilok Barua has learning disabilities.
\nThe late Nihar Barua\u2019s daughter Rumi Barua said, \u201cOur land was seized because my father has passed away and my brother has a learning disability, which they used to exploit him. They built a temple on the land to hold on to it.\u201d
\nOn February 15, the land grabber Molin Kanti Das created a commotion and filed a complaint at the sadar police station claiming that his temple was going to be attacked.
\nIn light of the complaint, two separate groups, one under Additional Superintendent of Police Shampa Rani Saha and another comprising the Hindu community, investigated the case.\u00a0 After investigation, the two groups concurred that the temple was built to legitimise the illegal land-grabbing and that far from being a Sarbojonin temple, it is in fact a private, family temple.
\nThe district\u2019s Central Temple committee\u2019s Joint Secretary Municipal Councilor Ajit Das said, \u201cThe temple was clearly built to illegally occupy the land and no one else besides Molin\u2019s family goes to pray there.\u201d
\nSources have confirmed that Molin had initially promised to give a portion of the land back when he formed a committee to build the temple. However, since he was not the legal owner of the land, he was unable to do so. As a result, the local Hindu community constructed another Sarbojonin Shiva Mandir in the area.
\nThe president of Omkareshwar Sarbojonin Shiva Mandir, Modon Das, said, \u201cOur temple is the genuine Sarbojonin temple; the Hari Mandir is used exclusively by Molin\u2019s family, the local Hindu community have nothing to do with that temple.\u201d
\nRegarding the issue, Molin commented, \u201cIf the Hari Mandir stays, it is my land; if the temple is torn down, I will not have any ties to the land any longer.\u201d
\nMeanwhile, locals believe that the Molin has been filing case after case against them as an excuse to prolong his illegal occupation, and this has left the locals extremely agitated. Locals hope that the land is returned to its rightful owner, the family of the late Nihar Kanti Barua, after an objective investigation of the matter.
\nASP Shampa said, \u201cWe have learned from our own investigation and from Hindu leaders that the temple was built as an excuse to illegally occupy the land. In that light, we will take appropriate measures to address this case.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A contractor has been accused of seizing land belonging to a Hindu family and constructing a temple on their lands, in Bandarban\u2019s Balaghata area. Local sources said that in 2005, a Nihar Kanti Barua purchased some 1.66 acres of hilly land in Balghata. Since then Nihar has been regularly paying the property tax according to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40766"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40766\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}