Food official among 5 sent to jail for stealing rice from govt warehouse

A Chittagong court has sent five people, including a food official, to jail in a case filed for trying to smuggle 155 metric tons of rice from a government warehouse. Additional Metropolitan Magistrate Shahadat Hossain Bhuiyan passed the order on Wednesday. Chittagong Metropolitan Police Additional Deputy Commissioner (Prosecution) Niramlendu Bikash Chawakrabarty said the court sent them to jail when the detainees were produced before it. Earlier on Tuesday, a team of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB 7) detained them with 3,096 sacks of rice. The rice was allegedly smuggled from the Central Supply Depot (CSD) warehouse Halishahar area in seven trucks. The accused are—CSD food warehouse manager Pranay Chakma, Shamsul Huda, Mizan, Safi Alam, and Osman. RAB sources said Pranay and another accused CSD’s Assistant Manager Fakhrul Alam is on the run.