A mobile court in Jashore district town seized a large quantity of illegally stockpiled edible oil and fined the owner of a local warehouse for attempting to manipulate market supply.

The drive was conducted Wednesday afternoon in Nilganj area by the district office of the national consumer rights protection department.

Acting on a tip-off, officials raided a godown operated by M/s Nawab Ali and recovered 43,044 litres of edible oil stored unlawfully.

According to officials, the seized stock included 211 barrels of oil — 81 barrels of soybean oil, 90 barrels of palm oil, and 40 barrels of super oil. Each barrel contained approximately 204 litres of oil.

According to officials, market value of the confiscated oil is estimated to be around Tk 91 lakh.

Haseeb Emami, the owner of the godown, was fined Tk 50,000 for illegally hoarding the oil and creating an artificial shortage in the market.

Authorities said that the stockpile was intended to destabilise supply and increase profits.

Md Selimuzzaman, assistant director of the consumer rights department, confirmed that the operation was carried out based on specific intelligence.

He added that the owner has been instructed to release the seized oil into the market immediately.