70,000kg govt rice recovered from pvt warehouse in Ctg
Tonnes of rice get imported by the government from different countries to keep prices stable in Bangladesh's market, but syndicates of unscrupulous Chattogram food officials, transport contractors, and local rice traders misappropriate the rice in different ways to later sell it at higher prices.
Amid piled-up allegations against food department officials following several such incidents, members of Chattogram Metropolitan Police's (CMP) Detective Branch (DB) recovered a total of 1,400 sacks of government rice yesterday, each weighing 50 kg. The total amount of rice is 70,000kg.
During a drive, officers initially seized a truck with 260 rice sacks from the warehouse of a rice trader in port city's Pahartali area in the early hours. After searching the warehouse, they found another 1,140 sacks.
DB officers arrested Abdul Bahar Mia (45), the warehouse's owner and proprietor of M/s Mahi Traders of Pahartali rice market.
Addressing a press conference, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Faruk Ul Haque of DB (port) said, "The truck was loaded with 260 rice sacks from the warehouse of Chittagong port's jetty. With an invoice, it was later supposed to go to Charbhata's LSD godown of the food department in Noakhali."
"But after leaving the jetty, the truck entered Bahar's warehouse, where police detained Bahar and seized the truck, acting on a tip-off," he said.
"When the DB officers were inspecting the truck and rice, they found another 1,140 sacks inside the warehouse, with the food department's logo printed on them," added DC Faruk.
Faruk said the rice was imported from India and later stored inside the jetty for disbursement. "Govt of People's Republic of Bangladesh, Directorate of Food, Ministry of Food" was written on every sack.
"Police suspect that syndicates may have unloaded huge amounts of rice in a similar way earlier," he added.
Asked about involvement of food officials in the incident, DC Faruk said, "It's not possible for anyone to misappropriate a huge amount of rice without inside assistance. We are grilling Bahar and will bring all those behind the incident to book."
Arrested Bahar told The Daily Star, "I managed to get the rice with help from government officials who imported it. I received it with help from one Khokon Babu of a transport company that carries the consignment. Khokon managed everything for transporting the rice from the port to my warehouse."
"I've bought a kilogramme of rice for Tk 39, and used to sell them for Tk 41 per kg at Pahartali bazar," he said.
This correspondent obtained invoices of 300 rice sacks, and found that SM Nur Uddin, assistant food controller of Jetty Food Office, had signed on them for sending the rice to Noakhali LSD godown. DB officers said Bahar managed to unload 40 sacks out of the 300 before police arrived.
PAHARTALI SYNDICATE INVOLVED
After every such incident, Pahartali rice traders' syndicate, which allegedly has good relations with food officials, gets brought up. Sources said the traders first get the government rice sacks, take the rice out, and then fill it in new sacks that have names of different rice mills on them to avoid suspicion and sell them in the market.
Earlier, police arrested three persons, including rice traders of Pahartali market, in possession of 21 sacks of stolen rice, and recovered 1,500 empty sacks of the food department from the warehouse of one Omar Faruk on April 8, 2020. Omar, one of the arrestees, is the owner of M/s Faruk Trading of Pahartali bazar.
FOOD DEPARTMENT'S RESPONSE
Md Jahirul Islam Khan, regional food controller of Chattogram, told The Daily Star, "Usually, transport contractors signed with the food department carry the consignments from the port to designated food warehouses, and they are liable for the work."
"We are investigating the incident," he said.
Earlier, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested two persons and recovered 1,583 kg of OMS rice from Chattogram's Mirsarai upazila.
Rab also recovered 3,396 rice sacks, which were stolen from a food department warehouse, from port city's Akbar Shah area in July 2017, following a two-day drive. During the incident, Rab arrested a food official and four others on charge of stealing the rice.
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