A video claiming to show the demolition of the house of popular folk singer and former Member of Parliament Momtaz Begum has gone viral on Facebook. The 1-minute-35-second clip shows a white two-storey building being demolished with a heavy bulldozer. The video’s caption asserts that the property belongs to Momtaz, who is currently in jail. However, fact-checking reveals that the house does not belong to her. Rather, it was an illegally constructed residence on forest department land in Gazipur, owned by a local resident. The house was demolished in March during an eviction drive by the forest department. No evidence has been found linking Momtaz to the property.

On May 19, multiple Facebook posts circulated the demolition video, identifying the house as belonging to Momtaz. Among them was a post shared by Golam Rabbani, former general secretary of Bangladesh Chhatra League, from his verified Facebook profile. The caption read, “The house of Bengali folk music queen Momtaz is being demolished. In the past 15 years, the homes of Monir Khan, Baby Naznin, and Asif Akbar were not destroyed.”

Many users shared the video expressing anger. One asked why Momtaz’s house was demolished even after her arrest. Another commented, “Let her be tried, and if found guilty, let her be punished or her assets confiscated—but where is the law that allows her home to be demolished?”

A reverse image search led to a video report by Ananda TV, where the same white building appears during demolition. This clip was originally shared on March 30 on the Facebook profile of Motasim Sikder Rajib, Gazipur correspondent of the newspaper Samayer Kanthoshor. According to that post, the demolition was part of an operation to reclaim forest department land in the Sinabah Bagambar area of Kaliakoir, Gazipur.

DismissLab contacted Rajib for clarification. He confirmed that the demolished house belonged to a local resident named Lebu Mia, who had illegally built the structure on forest department land in the Bagambar area. He stated unequivocally that the house had no connection to singer Momtaz. DismissLab also received the original Samayer Kanthoshor report related to the incident from the newspaper.

Based on this information, the DismissLab team also contacted Shahidul Hasan Shakil, Assistant Conservator of Forests and Range Officer at the Kaliakoir Forest Department. He confirmed, “This was the house of Labib Uddin, also known as Lebu Mia, located west of Sinabah Bazar in Ward 4 of Mouchak Union, Kaliakoir Upazila, Gazipur.”

He added that the house was built illegally by occupying government forest land. Following instructions from the Dhaka Forest Division to act against tree felling, land grabbing, and illegal construction after August 5, an eviction drive was conducted on March 30. As part of that drive, this and several other structures were removed. He affirmed that the demolished house had no connection to singer and former MP Momtaz Begum.

DismissLab also found a report published on March 30 in Ajker Patrika featuring the same incident and images of the mentioned house.

It is worth noting that about one and a half months later, on May 12, singer and former MP Momtaz Begum was arrested from Dhanmondi, Dhaka. She was detained by the Detective Branch (DB) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police in connection with multiple cases including murder. After a four-day remand interrogation, the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Court ordered her to be sent to jail on May 17. Shortly thereafter, this unrelated and outdated video began circulating on social media claiming her house had been demolished.

Original News Source: https://dismislab.com/factcheck/politics/eviction-momtaz-house-false/