After the arrest of controversial social worker Milton Samadder, silence is prevailing in the two centres of the charitable organisation Child and Old Age Care, founded by Milton.
The institution that had been a place of shelter for the helpless elderly and children for a decade was found very quiet on Friday.
Milton Samadder was arrested on charges of fraud on Wednesday and placed on a three-day remand on Thursday.
On Friday, when this reporter visited the permanent centre of the Child and Old Age Care located on Kamalapur Bahirtek in Savar, he found the entire premises deserted and silent. The main gate was closed, and no outsider could enter except for those related to the institution.
People were seen moving inside the 7-storey building on a limited scale. This correspondent tried to talk with the Ashram’s office staff, but no one responded from inside. A kitchen was situated in front of the main building. A woman was found inside the kitchen, but she refused to talk with the correspondent.
While roaming around the Ashram, this correspondent went to a house next to it, where a woman seeking anonymity said, “As we have seen, the activities of Milton Samadder on Facebook. When Milton da started the construction of the building, we were so happy. We also donate to the Ashram. But when we started communicating with him in reality, he was found opposite to the character we saw on Facebook.”
She said, “He was so arrogant and his behaviour was so rude. During the construction work he tried to build a room inside the land of another person. He also beat a family for not selling land to him at a cheap rate.”
“He made the road in front of his ashram so narrow that other landowners after his Ashram could not move with their vehicles. Other landowners requested him to widen the road. But he didn’t hear their request,” said the woman. She said, “The construction of the ashram
started about 3-4 years ago. But the ashram’s activities started in March this year. We live next to the ashram, but he didn’t tell us when it was inaugurated.”
A youth seeking anonymity said, “We didn’t know much about Milton Samadder, until now. The crimes being talked about were not in our imagination. I knew that he used to run the ashram here. But everyone here knows about his bad behaviour.”
“Because often, the visitors or people coming to the ashram complained of bad behaviour. Even when relatives introduced themselves, they were often not allowed to meet. We knew these things as locals. And now I know the rest after the news in the media,” he added.
The situation was also the same at the Kalyanpur Center of Child and Old Age Care, located in the Darussalam area of Mirpur. The entire institution was silent, and the main entrance was closed. No outsider could enter.
Rasel, a security guard at Child and Old Age Care Kalyanpur centre, said “DB police have banned everyone from entering. Either get permission from DB or enter here with administration. This rule will continue until the problem is resolved.”
He stated that the situation inside was normal: “There is no problem inside; everything is going on normally. The people of the organisation are taking care of everything.”
Earlier, the Detective Branch (DB) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) arrested Milton Samadder in a raid in the Mirpur area of the capital on Wednesday (May 1).
After that, three cases were filed against Milton Samadder. Police produced him before court with a remand prayer in a case on Thursday. The court granted a three-day remand.
Recently, various misdeeds of Milton Samadder were published in the media. Since then, a storm of criticism started regarding his activities on social media.
Milton Samadder denied all the allegations against him in interviews to some media.
