Ignoring Rajuk's plan and local residents' demand, the housing and public works department, which was under Abbas' ministry, allotted 17 plots on the open field adjacent to Sonali Bank at Taltala, Khilgaon, among the relatives of the former housing and public works minister.

Abbas was recently listed as one of the top 50 corruption suspects by the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC).

People who had lost lands during the construction of Kamalapur Railway Station and Bishwa Road were compensated with lands in Khilgaon Rehabilitation Area. Mirza Abbas' father's and his maternal uncle's names were on the list of people who were compensated.

Sources said Mirza Abbas (father -- late Abdur Razzak) under the name of Mirza Abbas Uddin Ahmed was the beneficiary of the compensation scheme under LA Case no 63/59-60, who was allotted lands at CS points 1162, 1163, 1165 and 1404 of Khilgaon mouja, as he had been shown as an affected person.

A meeting of the Land Allocation Committee of Khilgaon Rehabilitation Area on 21 March 1996, suggested allotment of 3.3 khata of land at plot no 934/19 for Mirza Abbas.

Erstwhile local ward commissioner Zahiruddin Babul along with former deputy secretary of the housing ministry Sirajul Anwar, former executive engineer of public works department Mohsin Faruq, and former general secretary of the land distribution committee of Khilgaon, Mojammel Haq Bhuiyan were present at the meeting.

All recommendations and decisions of the committee were made under pressure from Abbas, said officials of the public works department, wishing anonymity.

Plots were also allotted to Abbas's sisters Kamala Khatun (plot no A- 934/13), Renu Mirza (plot no A -934/14), Ishrat Mirza (plot no A- 934/15), Sahida Mirza (plot no A-934/16), Rashida Mirza (plot no A-934/17), and to his brothers Mirza Irshadul Huq (plot no A-934/18), and Mirza Ekramul Hossein (plot no A-934/20) in the same area.

Some more plots were allotted to Asma Mirza, daughter of Abdul Mannan (plot no A-934/23), Monwara Mirza (plot no A-934/22), Mirza Khairul Hossein (plot no yanw-12/1), Saima Mirza (plot no yanw-101), Mirza Abdus Salam Ronu (plot no jha-17), Muktarun Nesa (plot no yanw-102), Sara Mirza (plot no A-934/21), Mirza Mozammel Haq (plot no yanw-68), and Mirza Farah Momtaz (polt no jha-18).

There was a slum on the open field a few years ago, local residents told this correspondent adding that the immediate past BNP government demolished the slum to build a park there.

Brushing aside the demand of the local residents, former housing minister Abbas allotted the field to his relatives after demolishing the slum, alleged the residents.

The field is now surrounded by walls built under Abbas' instruction, alleged an official of Rajdhani Timber Traders situated close to the field.

"A section of the wall was damaged once when some logs fell on it," said the business official adding, "A sub-inspector of the local police station rushed to our saw mill and ordered us to rebuild the wall by the end of the day saying the order was from Mirza Abbas," he recalled.

A fire brigade station was also supposed to be built on the open field, said local residents adding that the plan could not be implemented as Abbas intervened.

"Abbas grabbed the open field," alleged Nisar Uddin Ahmed, local commissioner of ward no 24.

"A park was supposed to be built here," he said referring to the master plan of Rajuk. "Nothing was implemented as Abbas intervened," he added.

Honufa Begum, a local resident, filed a case with the ACC against Abbas in January, where she claimed that Abbas had snatched her land showing fake documents.

MIRZA'S REAL ESTATE SCAM
Seventeen buildings, declared abandoned by the immediate past government, were sold by Rajuk through arranged tenders during Abbas' tenure as the public works minister.

BNP's high-ups using their real and false names bought those buildings in the capital's Gulshan, Banani and Dhanmondi areas. The buyers include political secretary to the former prime minister Harris Chowdhury, and former prime minister's nephew Shahrin Islam Tuhin, according to sources.

They bought those buildings in nominal prices, depriving the government of a large amount of revenue. Former housing minister Mirza Abbas was also benefited in various ways through the sales, the sources said.

High rise buildings are now being built on those lands among which were 134.79 khatas of separate pieces of land with eight buildings on them in Gulshan, 112.60 khatas of land with seven buildings on them in Dhanmondi, 7.45 khatas of land in New Eskaton, and 8.14 khatas of land with a building on it in Banani.

A total of 262.98 khatas of separate pieces of land with 16 buildings on them were sold for a total price of about Tk 65.14 crore.

The current average price of a khata of land in those areas is about 25 lakh, according to land speculators. But those lands with buildings on them were sold for half the real average price.