A Dhaka court on Friday placed two men on a five-day remand in connection with the theft of copper cables from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) red telephone connection at the Secretariat.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Hasan Shahadat passed the order after a hearing.
Shah Alam, a sub-inspector of the Dhaka Metropolitan Prosecution Department, confirmed the matter.
Earlier, the investigation officer Sub-Inspector Enjamul Haque of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit produced the two accused before the court and sought a seven-day remand for each. The court granted five days of remand instead.
According to CTTC sources, the theft of the PMO’s red telephone connection cables recently sparked widespread discussion on social media and in the news media. Following the incident, Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) filed a case with Shahbagh Police Station against unidentified persons.
As part of the investigation, law enforcers reviewed available evidence and intelligence information before detaining Ranjan Chandra, 26, an outsourcing employee at the Secretariat, for questioning on Thursday.
During interrogation, Ranjan allegedly confessed to stealing the copper cables from Building No 3 of the Secretariat on May 22, CTTC sources said.
He reportedly sold 8.2 kilograms of the stolen copper wire to a scrap dealer in front of Ekushey Hall at Dhaka University on June 1 for Tk 600 per kilogram.
Based on information obtained from Ranjan, a CTTC team raided the area and arrested Rizakul Islam, 32, from a scrap shop adjacent to Ekushey Hall.
Investigators later conducted another raid at a scrap warehouse on Hoseni Dalan Road in Chawkbazar, where they recovered the stolen copper cables belonging to the PMO’s red telephone connection.
Preliminary findings suggest that an organised criminal network may have been involved in stealing cables from several critical communication links within the Secretariat, CTTC sources said.
The investigation is ongoing to identify other members of the alleged syndicate and bring those responsible to justice.
