Police on Monday arrested a union parishad (UP) chairman in Bishwambharpur upazila of the district on charge of misappropriating rice under Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) programme.

The arrestee is Soleyman Mia, 42, chairman of Palashpur Union Parishad (UP) under the upazila.

Sources said Soleyman received 266 sacks (each contains 50 kilograms) of rice from a government food godown to distribute among the VGF cardholders.

Around 11:00am on Monday, Soleyman started distributing rice among the cardholders, but he stopped distributing the rice after a few hours, saying that the rice ran out of stock.

Later, the poor people, who were in a queue for VGF rice on the premises of the UP office, took out a procession, chanting slogans against Soleyman. They later confined him to a room of the union parishad complex. On information, Upazila Nirbahi Officer Abdullah Al Mahamud along with a police team went to the spot and arrested the UP chairman.