Habibur Rahman : There have been allegations of serious irregularities and unilateral decisions outside the rules in an auction held in Kushtia to collect the decreed dues of Bangladesh House Building Finance Corporation. The auction was held at 10 am on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, in the court of Kushtia Senior Civil Judge (Sadar Court) Nishith Ranjan Biswas. Several participating bidders have complained that many were excluded from the auction after the condition of depositing “cash 20 lakh taka” was suddenly imposed before the start of the auction. The second notice of auction of the 0.0662 acre land of SA Khatian 1188/RS Khatian 1239/Namazari 1188/1, Dag No. 1169 (SA)/2096 (RS) and the adjacent pucca building was published in the daily Samakal on July 22, 2026, to recover the corporation’s dues of 57 lakh 620 taka and 19 paisa, along with interest, litigation costs and other expenses. The notice clearly stated that if the highest bid is accepted, 25 percent of the money will have to be deposited immediately and the remaining money will have to be paid within the time fixed by the court. But before the auction started, the attendees were informed that only those who have cash of 20 lakh taka will be able to participate. The application to deposit checks was also rejected. As a result, although a total of 41 people appeared, all but four left the court in anger as they did not have cash.
The auction was conducted by Senior Civil Judge Nishith Ranjan Biswas and District Judge Court Nazir Mizanur Rahman. The victimized bidders told reporters that Shonima Afsana Shapla joined the auction by submitting her national identity card. The judge came to the court and said that only those who currently have 20 lakh taka in cash can participate. Shapla had 10 lakh taka in cash, and people were sent to the bank for the rest of the money. When she applied for time, the judge took her 10 lakh taka deposit and allowed her to participate. During the auction, when Shapla raised the price to 92 lakh taka, another bidder objected and said that he did not have the full 20 lakh taka. Then the judge forbade him from bidding again. Shapla asked for two minutes and said that his people had entered the court premises with the money. But the judge did not accept that application and decided to award the auction to another person who raised the price to 91 lakh 50 thousand taka for 92 lakh taka and locked the auction.
Abdul Hadi, who came to participate in the auction, said, “We participated in accordance with the rules. But suddenly we were disqualified by imposing the condition of handcash. Nothing like this was said before.” Hasanuzzaman Sagar said, “This rule of participating in the auction by depositing money is ridiculous. I have never seen anything like this before.” Another woman who participated in the auction, Mousumi, said, “I pledged the land for 2.3 million taka a year and a half ago. A case was filed because the land could not be registered. There was a condition of depositing 25 percent of the money if the highest bidder was in the auction of that land. Today, I was disappointed to hear about 20 million taka suddenly.” However, it is known that the two who were unfairly excluded from the auction have complained to the relevant authorities, seeking appropriate legal remedies in this regard. In addition, allegations of irregularities against Nishith Ranjan Biswas have been published in local newspapers before.
When asked about this, the accused Senior Assistant Judge Nishith Ranjan Biswas refused to comment. Kushtia Senior District and Sessions Judge Enayet Kabir Sarkar’s statement could not be known as he was on leave. Neither the president nor the general secretary of the Kushtia District Bar Association agreed to speak in front of the journalist’s camera on this issue.
The auction losers claimed that justice has been disrupted by such a unilateral decision. They said they would bring the matter to the attention of higher authorities.
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