Stolen cloth worth Tk 28 lakh recovered

Rapid Action Battalion personnel inspect Tk 28 lakh worth of imported fabrics and threads after seizing the goods at Barrister College Road in Chittagong city yesterday. The 50,000 metres of cloth and fabric were stolen earlier in the day from a company at Chittagong Export Processing Zone.Photo: STAR

Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) yesterday recovered Tk 28 lakh worth of imported fabrics and threads, which were stolen on the same day, from Barrister College Road in the port city.
They also arrested six persons and seized a covered van and a microbus in this connection.
The arrestees are Md Delwar, Belal, Jakir, Swapon, and drivers of the vehicles Sujauddoula and Jasim Uddin.
According to Maj Md Rakibul Amin, deputy director of Rab-7, on information Rab conducted a drive at a residential building named Shagotom House on the road under Bandar Police Station and recovered the items.
Partners Md Humayun and Ziaul Hauqe Suman rented the building's ground floor to use as a nursing centre, which is actually a front to keep stolen goods, he added.
They made three trips yesterday morning to take away around 50 thousand of metres of fabric and thread from JMS Garments Limited, which is situated at section 6 of Chittagong Export Processing Zone (CEPZ), Rakibul said quoting drivers Jasim Uddin and Sujauddoula.
Rafiqul Islam, one of the owners of Shah Amanat Enterprise, a company that supplies labourers to different factories in the CEPZ area, rented them the vehicles for carrying the goods.
Rafiqul, Humayan and Suman are all involved in this, Rakibul said.
Lt Col Anowar Latif, commanding officer of Rab-7, said security force and customs authority of CEPZ and JMS garments had no records of any entry and exit of the two vehicles, which indicates that a section of BEPZA and JMS staff were involved in the smuggling.
He said the gang has been very active in smuggling garment goods in the local market. Higher ups of BEPZA and JMS might be connected, he added.
KA Millad, director operation of JMS, said last month at least 16 thousand zippers were stolen from their factory. He said they could not find the goods yet.