A Chittagong court has placed six persons on fresh remand for different terms in the case filed over the seizure of liquid cocaine consignment in guise of sunflower oil from Chittagong Port.
Metropolitan Magistrate Rahmat Ali passed the order Thursday after the IO of the case produced the arrestees before the court with a plea for placing them on 10-day remand each.
Chittagong Metropolitan Public Prosecutor Md Fakhruddin said: “Hearing the arguments, the court placed Golam Mostafa Sohel, manager of Prime Hatchery, a sister concern of alleged importer Khan Jahan Ali Limited, on a five-day remand.
“Sohel's cousin Mehedi Alam and C&F Agent Saiful Islam Sumon were also put on a five-day remand each. Besides, COSCO Shipping Agency Manager AKM Azad, Mondol Group Commercial Executive Atiqur Rahaman and real estate company official Mostafa Kamal were placed on two-day remand each.”
All the accused were put on remands for different terms earlier.
On June 6, the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate stopped a consignment of sunflower oil, suspecting existence of liquid cocaine inside a container at Chittagong port.
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.
After conducting a final test on June 27, the officials became certain of the liquid cocaine.
On June 28, police lodged a case against Khan Jahan Ali Group Chairman Nur Mohammad for his company’s connection with the alleged import of liquid cocaine.
The authorities said 185 litres of the contraband item was found in a drum out of a total of 107 in the container.
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 for questioning. However, he was released afterwards and he is on run since then.
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. Later, the law enforcers arrested the other suspects during different drives.
