A case was filed on Tuesday night against a local Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader and three others over the alleged looting of a truck carrying 300 sacks of cumin worth nearly Tk 50 lakh at Bagha upazila in Rajshahi.
The case was lodged with the Bagha police by trader Md Ferdous Sardar, 26, seven days after the incident that took place in Arani municipality area under the upazila on May 6.
The police had earlier received a written complaint from the victim, but the filing of the case was delayed reportedly due to efforts to settle the matter through mediation.
Through intervention by a senior local BNP leader, 175 sacks of cumin was recovered, while the rest 125 bags of the spice remains missing, the victim said.
Ferdous, a wholesale importer from Char Chinakhra village in Pabna, in his case named Md Sujat Ahmed alias Tufan, 55, former joint convener of the BNP unit of Arani municipality under Bagha upazila, as the prime accused.
The other accused are Sujat’s brother Md Jahangir Hossain, 45, and his nephews Md Sweet, 25, and Md Shanto, 28.
According to the case statement and the victim’s account, Ferdous, an importer and wholesale supplier of goods, came to an understanding to sell 300 sacks of cumin weighing 9,000 kilograms to the accused.
The cumin, valued at Tk 49.5 lakh at Tk 550 per kilogram, was sent from Pabna to Arani by truck in the early morning on May 6 and reached there about 8:00am.
After unloading, accused Sujat Ahmed handed a signed cheque of Pubali Bank to Sinarul Islam, who acted as an intermediary between the two traders, as the price of the consignment.
As Sinarul checked with Pubali Bank, officials informed him the account concerned did not have any deposit in it.
Sinarul alleged that when he again demanded the payment, he was taken behind a tea stall about one and a half kilometres from Arani market and forced at knifepoint to hand over the cheque.
The following morning, Ferdous filed a written complaint with the Bagha police who launched a search for the cumin but failed to find it.
Later, BNP Arani municipality unit president Tozammel Haque intervened and arranged the recovery of 175 sacks of cumin.
He also reportedly assured the victims that payment for the remaining goods would be settled by May 10, but failed to do so, and advised them to take legal action to recover the remaining 125 sacks of cumin or get the money for it.
Tozammel Haque told New Age that he had tried his best to recover the goods and later advised the victims to seek legal action.
Contacted, Sujat Ahmed told New Age that his nephews were behind the incident, claiming that the matter had already been settled.
Bagha Police officer-in-charge Serajul Haque told New Age that they were trying to arrest the accused and recover the missing cumin.
