An application has been filed in court seeking to register a case against 27 individuals—including Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Chief Adviser of the then-interim government, and Legal Adviser Dr. Asif Nazrul—over charges of vandalism, looting, and arson at the historic house on Dhanmondi 32 in the capital. The application also names 3,000 to 5,000 unidentified individuals as accused.
On Thursday (August 20), a woman named Tamanna Chowdhury Priyanka filed the application as a complainant in the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Md. Jewel Rana in Dhaka.
The court recorded the statement of the complainant and kept the order pending to be delivered later. A.K.M. Sharif Uddin, the lawyer representing the complainant, confirmed the matter.
The other individuals named as accused in the application include former Environment and Disaster Management Adviser Dr. Syeda Rizwana Hasan, former Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam, former Home Affairs Adviser Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, former Culture Adviser Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, former advisers and MPs Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain, and Mahfuz Alam, student coordinators Akhtar Hossen, MP Md. Hasnat Abdullah, Abdul Hannan Masud, Sarjis Alam, Samanta Sharmin, Nusrat Tabassum, Dr. Tasnim Zara, Nasiruddin Patwary, Ariful Islam Adib, and Saleh Uddin Sifat, YouTubers Pinaki Bhattacharya, Elias Hossain, and Kanak Sarwar, Retd. Colonel Nurnabi, Tahrima Jannat Surbhi, bulldozer provider Md. Milon, Fahim Al Chowdhury, and Abul Kalam Azad.
The application alleges that on February 5 of last year, the accused, with premeditated unlawful intent and without any provocation, broke down the main gate of the Dhanmondi 32 residence to gain entry. Subsequently, driven by the provocation, negligence, and direct instructions of the 1st to 9th accused, a bulldozer was used to vandalize the building. As a result, valuable state documents, historical relics of the Liberation War, and significant amounts of property were looted and permanently destroyed through arson.
The complainant side has applied for the issuance of arrest warrants against the accused under Sections 143, 147, 148, 379, 380, 395, 427, 435, 438, 448, 420, 506, and 507 of the Penal Code, alongside Sections 3/4 of the Explosive Substances Act and relevant sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
