Police have recovered another 7.5 tonnes of looted sugar following the hijacking of 300 sacks of sugar from Patiya in Chattogram.
The sugar was recovered in the early hours of Friday from a closed tailor’s shop in Nonachhari area of Harbang Union under Chakaria Upazila in Cox’s Bazar.
With this, 14.2 tonnes or 284 sacks out of the 15 tonnes of looted sugar have been recovered, whilst efforts continue to retrieve the remaining 16 sacks.
Police showed the covered van driver, Md Alamgir, arrested in connection with the case and sent him to court on Friday morning.
Md Rahat Uddin Jewel, a grocery shopkeeper at Aziznagar Bazar in Lama Upazila of Bandarban, has also been named as an accused in the case.
According to police’s preliminary suspicion, driver Alamgir may have staged the hijacking in collusion with others to embezzle the consignment. Later, businessman Jewel bought the sugar at below-market rates.
However, police said nothing definitive can be confirmed until the investigation is concluded.
Police sources said that on Wednesday night, 134 sacks of sugar looted in the same incident were recovered from a warehouse at Aziznagar Bazar in Lama Upazila.
Subsequently, in the early hours of Friday, another 150 sacks of sugar were recovered from Nonachhari area of Harbang. In total, the volume of recovered sugar stands at 284 sacks.
The owner of the sugar, Mohammad Sirajul Islam, filed a case as the plaintiff with Patiya Police Station on Thursday. Covered van driver Alamgir and Aziznagar Bazar grocer Jewel were named as accused in the First Information Report (FIR).
The investigating officer of the case, Mahbubur Rahman, said that 284 sacks out of the looted 300 sacks of sugar have been recovered so far.
A case has been registered based on the written complaint of the sugar owner, with covered van driver Alamgir and businessman Jewel named as accused. He added that the entire incident is being investigated and the actual facts will emerge through the probe.
Babul Ahmad, member of Ward No. 2 of Harbang Union Parishad, said that Aziznagar Bazar grocer Jewel and Nonachhari’s Rasel are biological brothers.
He said he came to know that both of them, along with their family members, had gone into hiding since Wednesday night after reports of the sugar embezzlement were published in various media outlets.
When he visited Rasell’s residence accompanied by the police, it was found locked.
Earlier, at around 5pm on Wednesday, the sugar-laden covered van was found abandoned in front of the newly constructed Karnafuli Upazila Parishad building on Chattogram-Anwara road adjacent to Shikalbaha Crossing on Chattogram-Cox’s Bazar highway.
Police subsequently initiated an investigation. Although the sugar has been recovered from two separate locations in successive drives, the remaining 16 sacks are yet to be found.
