Car importer, two others arrested in Ctg

A car importer and two employees of a clearing and forwarding (C&F) firm were arrested yesterday on charges of taking delivery of 48 imported vehicles from Chittagong port submitting forged Bills of Landing (B/L) of Tk 3.11 crore.
Members of the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested Md Alamgir Hossain, owner of M/S Surf & F International, from his home at Shulakbahar in the port city early yesterday.
Acting on his confessional statement, the Rab members arrested Md Shahjada Al Mamun, an official of FH International, and its staff Md Sohel in the afternoon.
Sources said Alamgir opened three L/Cs (letters of credit) at the Jubilee Road branch of Exim Bank on October 10 in 2006 and on February 8 and April 3 in 2007 for import of a total of 54 vehicles, including car, microbus and jeep from Japan.
But after the arrival of the vehicles, he managed to take the delivery of 48 vehicles on different dates producing forged Bills of Landing and Delivery Order while the amount of the L/Cs worth Tk 3.11 crore remain unpaid.
Since the middle of last year, the bank have repeatedly asked the importer to pay the amount of the L/Cs, but to no avail, said Regional Manager of Exim Bank Md Alamgir.
Finally, the bank contacted the port officials on Monday only to learn that all the vehicles have duly arrived and the importer took the delivery of vehicles several months ago, he added.