Court orders further investigation
A Chittagong court yesterday ordered Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) to further investigate the cocaine haul case of 2015.
The court of Chittagong Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Shahe Noor passed the order after the prosecution expressed discontent on the second charge sheet of the case filed under Special Powers Act, 1974.
In its order, the court asked Rab-7 to further investigate the case by a Rab official with Additional Superintendent of Police rank, said Public Prosecutor (PP) Fakhruddin Chowdhury.
On August 9, the prosecution expressed discontent over the case's second charge sheet that was submitted this year on May 14 to the court by Mohammad Kamruzzaman, additional deputy commissioner, Detective Branch (DB) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police.
In the charge sheet, Khan Jahan Ali Group's Chairman Nur Mohammad, the prime suspect of the cocaine haul case, was not implicated in the list of eight accused persons.
The first charge sheet of the case was submitted on November 19, 2015 by the same officer under Narcotics Control Act.
PP Fakhruddin said the prosecution expressed discontent over the second charge sheet and sought further investigation as the investigation officer (IO) of the case, similar to the first charge sheet, dropped Nur Mohammad's name from the second charge sheet.
Although the DB in the first charge sheet could not find Nur Mohammad's involvement in the cocaine case, Rab-7 during their investigation later established his involvement in the crime, said court sources.
On April 3 this year, Rab in their charge sheet implicated Nur Mohammed, his brother Mostaq Ahmed and eight others in the case.
Later, on July 27, Nur Mohammad, now on bail, lodged a Tk 100-crore compensation case against seven organisations and three individuals, said court sources.
On June 6 in 2015, based on a tip off, Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) seized a container loaded with 2,140 kilogrammes of liquid, suspected to be liquefied cocaine, in 107 drums at Chittagong port.
CIID officials said imported from Bolivia, the container was loaded on the ship in Montevideo of Uruguay and arrived in Chittagong via Singapore on May 13, 2015.
The container, bearing number CDHU-9145769/193844, was imported by Khan Jahan Ali Limited, with address 232, Nabi Market, Khatunganj, Chittagong, said CIIDs officials.
Next month, on June 8, a joint team of concerned authorities found existence of cocaine after they conducted physical examination of the container at the port. The authorities later decided to conduct laboratory tests.
In a laboratory test conducted in Dhaka dated June 27 the same year, one of the drums inscribed with number 96 was found to have been filled with cocaine.
The following day, on June 28, Sub-inspector Osman Gani of Bandar Police Station filed the much talked-about cocaine haul case with the police station and the DB of CMP launched an investigation into the case.
A Chittagong court on July 14, 2015 ordered investigators to apply the Special Powers Act in prosecuting the case.
Upon a court order, the IO of the case on July 8 recollected liquid samples from the drums and sent the samples to testing laboratories of Armed Forces Food and Laboratories, Directorate of Narcotic Control and Criminal Investigation Department for further examination
Existence of cocaine in the sample was found in the tests.
The customs intelligence investigators also found links of two Bangladeshi-origin British citizens, Bakul and Fazlur, in the smuggling of the contraband narcotic from Uruguay.
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