Tree house in Teknaf: Inside Bodi’s disputed retreat

Nestled in the thick shade of a large mango tree in Chowdhury Para of Teknaf Municipality, a wooden tree house offers quite the spectacle.

Built by former Awami League lawmaker Abdur Rahman Bodi, the structure was a quiet retreat where he entertained VIPs and special guests.

However, the house was constructed on a disputed 67-decimal plot of land that was never the property of Bodi or his family members.

According to the Bangladesh Land Survey of 1990, the plot, which also houses a primary school and cyclone centre, is classified as a vested and non-resident property managed by a sub-district magistrate committee on behalf of the government.

Family members of Jahir Ahmed, however, claimed ownership of the property, alleging that Bodi's men forcibly evicted them in 2010, a year after Jahir passed away.

Ayisa Begum, one of Jahir's seven siblings and widow of former Teknaf Municipality councillor Ekramul Haque -- who was killed in an alleged gunfight with Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) in 2018 -- recounted her family's memories.

"All my six sisters, brother, and parents used to visit the house during Eid vacations until 2009, the year my father passed away," she said.

"But in 2010, our relatives who lived there were ousted."

Din Mohammad, Jahir's only son, said his father had built a tin-shed house on the land before 1971.

"After his death, robbers broke into our house one night in 2010, breaching the back boundary and the main door. They threatened my aunt and her family to leave the house. Out of fear, they fled the next morning. Bodi then seized the land," he said.

He also claimed that Bodi offered him Tk 18 lakh to forget the property, despite its actual value being no less than Tk 8 crore.

"He told me, 'you don't need to sign anything. Take the money and forget the house'," Din said.

He also accused Bodi of taking their land documents and taking over the ongoing court case.

Bodi reportedly built the tree house after demolishing Jahir's family home.

He further alleged that Bodi built the tree house after demolishing their family home.

Documents show that Jahir filed a case with the Cox's Bazar District Court on October 23, 2001, arguing the land was wrongly recorded as vested property.

He claimed to have purchased the plot in 1966 from eight Rakhine individuals who later migrated to Myanmar.

The case is still ongoing.

During a recent visit, this correspondent found the tree house locked and abandoned.

Locals said Bodi's family left the property after the July Uprising that toppled the Awami League government.

Bodi was arrested in Chattogram a few days later and is now in jail.

Asked about the property, Arif Ullah Nijami, assistant commissioner (land) in Teknaf, said many khas lands [state-owned land] in the area are entangled in legal disputes.

Advocate Samsul Huda, the government pleader, said the case between Jahir's family and the state is currently being heard at Cox's Bazar Additional Court 1.

"The land was declared as government-owned, and the family later filed a case challenging that decision. Although they secured a favourable decree in 2014, the government filed a miscellaneous appeal against it," he said.

According to court documents, the court, after a hearing on February 19, ordered the deposition of three witnesses in the case.

When contacted, Mohammad Ferdus, the lawyer for Jahir's family, said he could not immediately recall the case and asked for the case number.

After receiving the details, he did not respond to further calls.