Businessman on 5-day remand

A Chittagong court yesterday placed an apparel businessman on a five-day remand for his alleged involvement in financing militant outfit Shahid Hamza Brigade.

The court of Banshkhali Senior Judicial Magistrate Sazzad Hossain passed the order after the Rapid Action Battalion produced Enamul Haque before the court with a seven-day remand plea.

The elite force arrested the 39-year-old in Turag area of the capital on Saturday in a case filed under the Anti Terrorism Act, 2009, on February 23. The lawsuit was lodged after a training centre of the outfit was unearthed in Banshkhali upazila.

At a press conference in Chittagong yesterday, Rab-7 Commanding Officer Lt Col Miftah Uddin Ahmed said Enamul, of Shakarigati of Jessore, is a director at an apparel firm established in Dhaka in 2013.

According to the Rab, their primary investigation found that Tk 1.38 crore had been deposited in different bank accounts of Shahid Hamja Brigade and Enamul put Tk 16 lakh of the amount into one of the accounts.

On August 11 last year, the accused wired the money to an account of Sanjida Enterprise with a private bank in Chittagong from Uttara in the capital, said Miftah.

The Sanjida Enterprise account is actually owned by Maniruzzaman Don, a key person of the militant outfit.

According to Enamul, three people had come to his firm some three to four days before the transaction and gave him Tk 16 lakh in cash for the delivery of different garment products, said the Rab official.

Enamul claimed that as he failed to make the delivery in time, he was asked to refund, and he deposited Tk 16 in the account accordingly.

The Rab CO claimed Enamul refunded the money using the name of a different organisation which was established in 2001 or 2003.

“Here we have noticed that Enamul tried to hide the name and address of his business firm while depositing the money. We have to investigate further to know why he gave a false address and whether other people were involved.

“He gave us the names of the people who reportedly gave him the money and now we are working to know their identities,” he added. 

On August 18, the Rab arrested three lawyers in the capital for allegedly financing the brigade and later the lawyers gave confessional statements before a court in Chittagong.

The lawyers allegedly had deposited Tk 1.08 core in the bank account of Moniruzzaman Don, claimed the Rab

The Rab-7 claimed to have arrested 29 alleged members of the militant outfit and recovered 25 arms and 150kg explosives and bomb-making materials from them.