When their father died in 2002, Harun Chandra Das and Ratin Chandra Das were less than 10 and did not stand to inherit much. Their share of the land was barely large enough to accommodate a hut.
But even that was not to be. Sheikh Hasina bought them out of the property, having earlier bought out adjacent properties from their extended family members.
However, these sales were not altogether voluntary. A local Awami League leader hounded them to sell, even dangling the carrot of jobs at factories to be built on the parcels.
Now, however, many of those who lost their land in their childhood are living on other people's properties, doing menial work.
Harun and Ratin inherited 0.59 acres of land along with five other family members in Majhipara area of Pirganj, Rangpur.
Harun and Ratin's cousin Pavitra Chandra Das, another minor at the time, was among the owners.
After Hasina bought the property on 16 July 2002, it was registered to her and her two children, Sajeeb Wazed Joy and Saima Hossain, according to land deeds obtained by Stream.
Ratin and Harun's mother Radhika Bala Das signed the deed as the boys were too young to sign legal documents. The purchase was mediated by local Awami League leader Shahidul Islam Pintu, also a grandnephew of Sheikh Hasina's late husband MA Wazed Miah.
On Pavitra's behalf, his mother Shefali Rani signed the deed.
The parcel of land by the Dhaka-Rangpur highway is approximately 1.3km from Pirganj town.
Currently, there is a mango orchard on the property. Until recently, the Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) was taking care of the orchard, locals and officials said, adding that there was an ARI sign at the site. After the fall of the Awami League regime on 5 August 2024, the signboard was removed.
On Google Maps, photos of the orchard from November 2021 show a signboard mentioning Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Burirhat, Rangpur.
The deeds
According to Hasina's 2024 election affidavit available on the Election Commission website, her immovable properties include 15.3 bighas of land. But the affidavit makes no mention of any jointly owned property, even though these parcels in Rangpur are owned by her, Sajeeb, and Saima.
Under Hindu property law, a mother has to sign a deed if the heir is a child and the father is dead.
Apart from the three boys, the four other sellers were Upendranath, Radhacharan Das, Adhir, and Arjun.
The deed mentions that the property was sold for Tk 75,000.
It adds that the family sold the property because it needed money to pay for the boys' education. The deed also notes that Hasina and her two children had previously bought two adjacent properties owned by relatives of Harun and Ratin.
Stream has the deeds for both of the properties: one 0.45½ acres, and another 0.23 acres. These properties were purchased on 3 January 2002.
Harun and Ratin's ancestral land is flanked by these two parcels of land.
Soon afterwards, local AL leader Shahidul Islam Pintu contacted Harun and Ratin's guardians and began pressing the family to sell their 0.59 acres, according to family members and locals.
Pintu promised the family members jobs and other inducements, and after over six months of persistent persuasion, he sealed the deal. This allowed the new owners to develop a sprawling 1.27½-acre mango orchard on what used to be three separate properties.
As per the three deeds, the owners were 22 Hindu people -- heirs of the same lineage. They were mostly fishermen.
Two of the sellers, Shribas Chandra Das and his elder brother Shridhar Chandra Das, told Stream that Pintu had some funds left over from Sheikh Hasina's 2001 election campaign.
She ran for office in Pirganj (Rangpur-6) constituency that year and lost the bid to Jatiya Party leader Nur Mohammad Mondal.
Her late husband MA Wazed Miah's ancestral home was in Fatehpur area of Pirganj.
Even though AL was not in power at the time, Pintu had substantial influence as a party leader and the grandnephew of Wazed Miah.
Shridhar says, "Pintu spoke of setting up a factory on the property and promised jobs for us and our children. But once the land was sold, Pintu grew vegetables on it for a few years and then made arrangements to build a mango orchard."
Shridhar says some of the owners never really agreed to give up their ancestral land, but Pintu kept insisting.
Contacted, Supreme Court lawyer Shihab Uddin Khan said convincing someone to sell a property under false pretenses constitutes fraud, and the victim can file a case in court over this.
Since Hasina was the main opposition leader at the time and went on to become the prime minister for over 15 years, ordinary citizens could not raise their voice against her, he said, adding that the affected individuals can now seek legal recourse.
Buying properties from a poor and vulnerable family in this fashion is not only unethical but also a crime, he said, adding it is as bad as forcibly taking over a parcel of land.
The area
The three sellers who were children in 2002 have now built homes on other people's land. Ratin now works as an electrician and Harun is a day labourer. Some others in the family live off fishing in Boro Bila, a vast wetland in Majhipara, and live in huts built on khas land.
If one sets out southward on the Dhaka-Rangpur highway from Pirganj bus terminal, they would reach Majhipara after travelling around 1.3km. Hasina's mango orchard is right next to the highway.
Residents of this part of Majhipara (which literally translates as fishing village) have been fisherfolks for generations, locals say.
Where is Pintu?
After the 2001 national election, Pintu set up a filling station along the Dhaka-Rangpur highway. Locals say he also bought 27 pickup trucks. He also built a four-storey residence in Pirganj and established an NGO titled Green Voice Cooperative Society.
After the fall of the AL regime on 5 August last year, Pintu went into hiding, but was arrested on 16 June this year at the refuelling station at Jamtala, Pirganj.
After his arrest, Shafiqul Islam Shafik, officer-in-charge of Pirganj Police Station, told reporters that Pintu was accused of misusing power and taking crores of taka from people seeking government jobs.
He also had unlicensed petrol pumps and brick kilns.
The orchard
Satellite images on Google Earth show that the orchard was once surrounded by a solid boundary wall.
After the fall of the AL regime, the signboards and the wall were damaged. There are around 150 trees of the BARI-4 variety in straight rows.
According to a signboard of the Agricultural Research Center, these were planted in 2013.
The orchard was tended by Burirhat Regional Agricultural Research Center in Rangpur. Nasirul Farid, scientific officer at the Center, says his office used to receive direct instructions about the orchard from the Prime Minister's Office when the AL was in power.
He adds that the Center used its funds to tend the trees, fruits, and to buy pesticides. "But we are only supposed to give advice to farmers," he said.
Besides, the institution never earned anything from the orchard.
After the fall of the regime, the Center stopped taking care of the farm, he said.
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