A Chittagong court yesterday again put an employee of Khan Jahan Ali Ltd on a five-day remand, who was arrested in connection with the import of liquid cocaine in the name of sunflower oil at Chittagong port.
Chittagong Metropolitan Police Additional Deputy Commissioner Kazi Muttaki Ibn Minan told the Dhaka Tribune the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Farid Alam remanded Golam Mostafa Sohel after the investigating officer of the case produced him before the court with a five-day remand plea in the afternoon.
Sohel, manager of Prime Hatchery Limited which is a sister concern of Khan Jahan Ali Ltd, was earlier remanded for five days by the same court. Khan Jahan Ali Ltd was named in documents as the consignee.
Minan said the fresh remand was necessary to further interrogate the accused as part of the probe.
Sohel was arrested on June 6 while the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) arrested three others on June 30 in connection with the case filed with Bandar police station on June 28.
Police initially found that Sohel imported the consignment using the company’s official documents. He was later nabbed and during primary interrogation, he said one of his relatives, who is an expatriate in England, had actually imported the consignment through a friend.
On Wednesday night, the court asked the investigating officer of the case to send samples collected from the consignment for fresh examinations in the Armed Forces Food and Drug laboratory at Dhaka cantonment, Criminal Investigation Department laboratory and Department of Narcotics Control laboratory in Dhaka.
The investigating officer was also asked to contact the Foreign Ministry if he wished to have the samples tested in any foreign laboratory.
On June 6, the CIID sealed the container at Chittagong port which was suspected to contain 2,140 kilogrammes of liquid cocaine. The container was boarded onto ship from Uruguay after being imported from Bolivia and arrived at Chittagong port on May 13 via Singapore.
In the primary examination of the sealed container on June 8, the existence of cocaine was not found. On June 27, cocaine’s presence was found in one of the drums through further laboratory tests.
Meanwhile, a team of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime at the request of the CIID is expected to come to Bangladesh soon to determine the actual weight of the cocaine.
