Police yesterday filed a case against Khan Jahan Ali Group Chairman Nur Mohammad on charges of his company’s connection with the import of liquid cocaine in the name of sunflower oil at Chittagong port.
Chittagong Port police station Sub-Inspector Osman Gani lodged the case while another arrestee, Khan Jahan Ali Group employee Sohel, was shown arrested in the case.
Officer-in-Charge of the police station AKM Mohiuddin Selim said Sohel was produced before court with a five-day remand plea.
The remand hearing is scheduled to be held today.
On Saturday, the existence of liquid cocaine was found in laboratory tests of the sample collected from the sunflower oil-laden container.
The Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate sealed the consignment at the port upon receiving information from police on June 6.
The authorities said 185 litres of the contraband item was found in a drum out of a total of 107 in the container.
Directorate officials suspected that about a third of the drum would be cocaine while help has been sought from neighbouring countries for additional lab tests to find out the exact quantity. They have already sent a letter to the Foreign Ministry via the National Board of Revenue in this connection.
On the night of June 6, customs officials after being informed by police sealed the container at the port as it was suspected that the consignment had brought 2,140 kilogrammes of liquid cocaine into the country.
Two days later, a special team conducted the physical examination of the container at the port but found no liquid cocaine in it. They then collected samples from the container and sent those to Dhaka for laboratory test.
Port sources said the container was put on board from Uruguay on March 30 after being imported from Bolivia. It arrived at Chittagong port on May 13 and was kept at the port yard as none came to release the container.
The container addressed to Nabi Market in Chittagong’s Khatungonj was imported by Khan Jahan Ali Limited.
A special team of the Detective Branch under Chittagong Metropolitan Police on June 6 detained Nur Mohammad, owner of Khan Jahan Ali Limited, for questioning.
During the interrogation, Nur said his employee Sohel had brought the consignment using the company’s address.
Detectives then nabbed Sohel, who said one of his relatives living in England had imported the consignment through a friend.
A case was lodged against Sohel in this connection and he is now behind bars.
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