Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested Nazmul from his house at Shantinagar in the capital on Thursday night on charge of smuggling 21.5 kg heroin to the United Kingdom.

"Nazmul owed Tk 32 lakh and it is documented," said an investigator seeking anonymity.

He also said those who lent Nazmul the sum might have hands behind the smuggling as they lent him the money knowing that he is not a wealthy man. Nazmul used to draw only Tk 4,000 as monthly salary when he was a staff of BD Foods.

Besides, Nazmul, now on a seven-day remand, finally admitted during interrogation in CID custody that he had been involved in the smuggling.

"He admitted to having links after investigators found similarity between his signatures on his credit card and on bank documents used for sending two consignments to the UK," Ibrahim Fatmi, CID special superintendent, told The Daily Star yesterday. Fatmi is leading a four-member investigation team constituted by the home ministry. The heroin in question was smuggled through the consignments.

The investigators said though Nazmul admitted his involvement, he is still concealing names of others involved in the smuggling.

Nazmul is telling the investigators that some people whom he does not know by names or does not know their addresses, appointed him to prepare EXPs (Export Related Documents) as he has the expertise. He also said he received payment for carrying out the task.

"He is a hard nut. He certainly knows their names, but providing us with cooked up information. What he is telling today denying the next day," said a member of the investigation team. "It is just the beginning of the investigation, we are hopeful to detect all others involved in the smuggling," the investigator said wishing to remain anonymous.

Replying to a question Ibrahim Fatmi said they have not yet cleared BD Foods from their investigation. "So far we have not found any link between the smuggling and BD Foods. The investigation is at the primary stage, if we find links with BD Foods, certainly we will mention its name in our report," he said.

"Whoever the persons or firms are, we will not let them get away if we find them to be involved in the smuggling."

On Friday, CID filed a case against two food product firms -- Messrs Emdad Trading and Jamil International -- for involvement in smuggling heroin to the UK. BD Foods was not incriminated in the case although it figured in the National Board of Revenue (NBR) probe report.

Earlier, complaints against five companies were received from the UK authorities for heroin smuggling. The companies are Messrs King and Company -- a sister concern of BD Foods, Emdad Trading, MM Enterprise, Jamil International and Green Haven.

The investigators already found Green Haven to be involved in smuggling 54kg of heroin to the UK and submitted a report to the home ministry in this regard.