Deputy Assistant Director Jahedul Haq of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) lodged the case against Sarwar with Patenga Police Station under Special Powers Act, 1974 in connection with keeping three bottles of liquor and five cans of beer.

A Chittagong court on Friday sent Sarwar, brother of Maruf Nizam, an alleged mastermind of the abduction and murder of BNP leader and businessman Jamaluddin Ahmed Chowdhury, to jail after he was produced before it.

Sources said many leaders of BNP, its front organisations and BNP sympathiser union parishad (UP) chairmen of his constituency have already gone into hiding after the current caretaker government came to power in January.

They said the former lawmaker patronised a syndicate of fertiliser smugglers, mostly BNP men loyal to him. They also influenced transfers and appointments of police and government officials in the constituency and made money out of it.

Sensational information regarding the misdeeds of Sarwar in Anwara upazila (the upazila under the former lawmaker's Chittagong-12 constituency) may be extracted from these syndicate members, if they could be arrested, observed a police officer.

Bhuiyan Mahbub Hasan, now the OC of Fatullah Police Station in Narayanganj, along with a few other police officers was a victim of Sarwar's wrath. He served as the OC at Anwara Police Station for six months only, from September 9, 2005 to March 13, 2006.

Sources in Anwara Police Station said OC Mahbub was summoned in front of Sarwar and was threatened at least 50 times in that small period of time for not carrying out his orders.

They alleged that the then lawmaker had the OC transferred after the OC failed to impose section 144 on the Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Company Ltd (CUFL) premises to stop a scheduled rally of Awami League.

“He [Sarwar] mounted pressure on me to impose section 144 but I refused to do it finding no justification to do so," Mahbub told The Daily Star yesterday over telephone when asked about the incident.

"Hundreds of people had already gathered for the rally at CUFL when the lawmaker without any good reason ordered me to impose section 144," he said, adding, "The situation would have gone beyond control had I carried out his orders."

Sources in the Upazila Nirbahi Officer's Office of Anwara upazila alleged that Akhter Nabi, a local BNP leader loyal to Sarwar, used to supervise all behind the scene acts on behalf of Sarwar, especially the transfers and appointments of police personnel and other government officials there.

"Through protecting Sarwar's interest, Nabi became a very rich man from nothing," the sources added.

Sources in Anwara Police Station said two other key close accomplices of the former lawmaker are Mozammel, a Jubo Dal leader of Haildhar union, and Ansar Chairman of Barumchhara Union. These two reportedly controlled the fertiliser smuggling on behalf of the former lawmaker.

Nabi, Ansar chairman and Mozammel have allegedly gone into hiding since January when caretaker government came to power.