Detectives have arrested three men for their alleged involvement in stockpiling commodities sold by the TCB, and later trading the products in the black market for a profit.
A Detective Branch team picked up Md Mamun, 27, manager of a Kafrul wholesale store named Rupam Traders; the store’s employee Jaker Ahmed, 32; and Md Kamal Hossain, 50, owner of a store in the capital’s Bhashantek area around 10:45pm on Monday.
The DB members also recovered 1,956 litres of soybean oil, 2,650kg sugar, 350kg chickpea and 80kg date from the two stores.
“The packets of the seized foodstuff contained the seal of Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB). The DB members also seized a truck, which was used for black marketing the commodities,” said DB Assistant Commissioner (Mirpur Zone) Mohorom Ali.
However, the main suspect – Rupam Traders owner Md Jahangir Hossain – could not be arrested. “The DB team could not detain Jahangir as he went on the run following the drive,” said the official.
Although rules said traders had to sell essential commodities of TCB between the hours of 9am and 5pm, Jahangir’s Rupom Traders sold the products for only an hour each day and kept the rest stockpiled in the store, Mohorom said.
Immediately after the drive, Jahangir was contacted over phone and asked to bring in documents to the police regarding the selling of TCB products. However, the police later found that he had switched off his mobile phone.
Jahangir, 40, was assigned to sell three truckloads of commodities at Kafrul, Bhasantek and Rajanigandha areas.
“He used to store all the TCB foodstuffs, instead of selling those to underprivileged people, while Kamal [one of the detainees] used to buy those products for his store,” the DB assistant commissioner said. A case has been filed in this connection with Kafrul police station.
Detectives suspect that some TCB officials may also be involved with the scam, as it would not have been possible to receive so much product without the go-ahead from a TCB inspector.
DB sources said such drives against black marketeers would continue throughout the city in the coming days.
