Garment Theft Ring: From ‘mastermind’ to ‘accused no 7’

Md Shahed alias Sayeed was arrested in September 2021 after police found his involvement in the theft of readymade garment products from goods-laden lorries on their way to the Chattogram port for shipment.

The very next day, AKM Hafiz Akhter, the then additional commissioner of the DMP's detective branch, told a press conference that Shahed was the mastermind of theft rings responsible for stealing at least 16,000 pieces of readymade garments.

The DB official also said Shahed led gangs that stole garment products from at least 5,000 lorries for around two decades.

Two cases were filed over two theft incidents that took place in May and September 2021, and DB later recovered most of the stolen readymade garments following information given by the arrestees.

The DB team of Tejgaon zone that arrested the suspects including Shahed and made the recovery of the stolen goods itself investigated the cases.

However, when the charge sheet in one of the cases was submitted to a Dhaka court on December 25 last year – a year and half after investigation -- Shahed, who was earlier termed the "mastermind", was listed as number seven of the eight accused by the investigation officer. 

In fact, no one was listed as the mastermind, and instead all eight were mentioned as "members" of an organised gang that stole readymade garments in collaboration with each other.

As per the serial of the charge sheet, the eight accused are: Abdur Razzak, Mainul Islam, Md Yusuf, Dulal Hosain, Al Amin, Khairul Islam, Md Shahed alias Sayeed alias Sylheti Sayeed and Abdul Khalek Masum.

Noted criminal lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan said that proving whether Shahed was the mastermind to the court could be done through the recovery of the stolen goods and confessional statements from the other accused. "Not mentioning a mastermind in the charge sheet was the investigation's weakness."

According to DB and Rab officials, Shahed owns two houses worth Tk 15-20 crore in Moulvibazar town, two poultry farms and a fish farm on 20 acres of land, a brick kiln and several lorries. His children live abroad.

A lawyer wishing anonymity said there have been speculations that sometimes investigators give flawed charge sheets against criminals in exchange for bribe.

Asked about the discrepancies between what is mentioned in the charge sheet and the ex-DB official's claim, Sub-Inspector Shahim Ahmed of DB's Tejgaon zonal team and the IO of the case, suggested taking comments from Md Shafiqul Islam,additional deputy commissioner of Tejgaon division DB.

Contacted, Shafiqul said the IO prepared the charge sheet based on the information he gathered during investigation of the particular case. However, he said, it was mentioned there that Shahed was also accused in 22 other cases, and was arrested in the case following information given by other arrested accused.

Shafiqul added that in the investigation of another case filed with Tejgaon Industrial Area Police Station over the theft of 11,000 pieces of garments items, his unit found Shahed's direct role as the mastermind, which will be mentioned in the soon-to-be-submitted charge sheet.

Rab again arrested Shahed on February 3 this year and said that from 2004 till 2018, the Sylhet native led a gang and was personally involved in the thefts.

He then started controlling the racket from behind the scenes and received the maximum share from the sale of the stolen goods.

"Shahed has been orchestrating the RMG thefts for over two decades and now commands a racket of 40-50 members," Khandaker Al Moin, Rab's legal and media wing director, told a press briefing on February 4.

Police and Rab officials said there are 10-12 such gangs that have been involved in stealing 30-40 percent of the products from almost all cartons of readymade garments, mainly from major consignments, being carried to Chattogram port for shipment.

As the cases are filed on charges of "regular theft", which is a bailable offence with a maximum punishment of only three years in jail, the criminals secure bail easily, legal experts said.

The law enforcement officials said almost all of the gang leaders and members were arrested several times earlier, but they secured bail within some days of their arrest and then got back to the crime, putting garments exporters at the risk of losing their reputation along with foreign buyers.