Abdul Momin, acting headmaster of Rani's Hat High School in Tarash, Sarajganj, has been accused of selling free government-level secondary textbooks allotted to the school.
The incident took place at Rani Hat Bazar of the upazila on Saturday afternoon.
Students and their parents have demanded the removal of the headmaster as the government-allocated free textbooks allotted to the school have been sold.
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However, on hearing of the sale of official books, Tarash Upazila Secondary Education Officer Fakir Zakir Hossain sent his office assistant Mahmudul Alam on Sunday afternoon and seized 903 copies of the books and brought them to his office.
Locals said Abdul Momin, the acting headmaster of Rani's Hat Sirajganj Bazar High School, stayed alone at the school on Saturday afternoon. Later, he secretly sold 183 kg of government free books on various subjects of class six to class nine of the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 academic year which were stored in the store room to Sabbir Hossain, a peddler of Panchtali village in Sherpur upazila of Bogura district.
In the afternoon, peddler Sabbir Hossain left his books in front of the tong shop at Rani's Hat Bazaar. The people who came to the market saw the government books and interrogated the peddler Sabbir Hossain. At the time, he told them that he had bought the books from Abdul Momin, the acting headmaster of Rani's Hat High School in Tarash, at Tk 13 per kg.
Regarding the sale of free government books, Abdul Momin told that he had sold the old books along with unnecessary school papers. And with the money from the sale of books, wash room of the school will be repaired.
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On the other hand, when the news of the sale of the official book came to light, the local people of the area, students and their guardians Bablu, Khorshed, Khaleq, Matin and many others expressed their anger and demanded the removal of the headmaster.
Regarding the sale of free government books, Tarash Upazila Secondary Education Officer Fakir Zakir Hossain said, "It is a crime to sell government books. We have already confiscated the books we sold. The matter has been reported to the higher authorities. Departmental action will be taken against acting headmaster Abdul Momin.”
