Cattle maintenance cost claimed Tk 19 lakh : Allegations against BNP, AL leaders, school teacher for swapping 76 seized smuggled cattle
Habib Sarowar Azad, Sylhet
Allegations have surfaced against leaders of BNP, Awami League, and a school teacher for taking custody of 80 lakh taka worth of Indian cattle seized in a smuggling operation by the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Taskforce, and subsequently replacing the large seized cattle with smaller ones.
The court, embarrassed by such actions, suspended the auction of the cattle on Tuesday.
For context, on April 30, a taskforce led by the 28 BGB Battalion seized 90 cattle (livestock) loaded onto a steel-body trawler through the Surma River waterway from the Boglabazar border in Doarabazar, Sunamganj, smuggled from India. Subsequently, the seized 90 cattle were valued at 80 lakh taka, and a case was filed at the Sunamganj Model Police Station against unknown cattle smugglers.
Through strategic maneuvers, Jahangir Alam Mintu, a member of the Boglabazar Union BNP convening committee, Sabbir Ahmed, an assistant teacher at Mitali High School, Nazmul Hasan, son of Monirul Islam Nantu, president of the Boglabazar Ward Awami League and a local UP member, Harunur Rashid, a Jubo Dal leader, and Bahar Uddin, a member of the Upazila Swechchhasebak Dal convening committee, took custody of the 90 seized cattle from the court.
Sunamganj Sadar Model Police Station OC Abul Kalam stated that during the first and second rounds of investigation, the police-BGB team could not locate most of the 90 cattle in the custody of the custodians. In the third round of investigation, only 14 of the listed 90 cattle were found, while the remaining 76 cattle had been replaced with smaller ones by the cunning custodians. Subsequently, the BGB and police submitted a report to the court detailing the 14 found cattle and the 76 swapped cattle.
Allegations have been raised against these unscrupulous custodians for selling the 76 seized cattle, worth 80 lakh taka, at high prices elsewhere.
On Tuesday (August 26), when the custodians brought the 90 cattle for auction as per court orders, the auction participants claimed that the current market value of the 90 cattle, including the 76 swapped ones, was only 20 lakh taka. To justify this misconduct through fraud in court, the custodians further claimed maintenance costs of 19 lakh taka for the 20 lakh taka worth of cattle.
By Tuesday evening, prior to the auction under court supervision, the auction committee convener, Senior Judicial Magistrate Muhammad Helal Uddin of the Sunamganj Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, halted the auction process because the size and shape of the cattle brought for auction were smaller than those in the seizure list, photos, and videos of the smuggled cattle.
At one point, the court ordered the custodians to return the original 90 cattle, as per the initial custody agreement. When the issue of fraud and deceit with the court came to light, the five custodians found themselves in a predicament.
On Wednesday, residents of the Boglabazar border area in Doarabazar Upazila, including Bashir, Ahsan, and Ujjal, among others, stated that the five custodians were secretly involved in smuggling Indian cattle. After taking custody of the 90 cattle from the court, they kept the cattle at the farms of Kamal Khan, Rafiq Khan, and Shahid Miya in Boglabazar for a few days. Subsequently, they sold 76 of the 90 cattle to various parts of the country and used the proceeds to purchase new batches of cattle from India through smuggling, selling them for profit.
They further stated that, banking on the assurance that their chosen people would win the court auction, the custodians bought 76 smaller cattle at a low price to present in court, only to be caught in the act.
On Wednesday, when approached for comment, Harunur Rashid, a Jubo Dal leader and one of the custodians from Boglabazar, Doarabazar, told this reporter, “Brother, I’m in trouble. I’ll talk to you later over the phone about this matter (cattle smuggling, taking custody, and swapping cattle),” before quickly disconnecting the call.
When asked for a statement, Jahangir Alam Mintu, another custodian and member of the Boglabazar Union BNP convening committee, told The Country Today that “Brother, I’m in big trouble. In four months, the cattle have become thin from not eating, and now the court is refusing to accept these as the seized cattle.” When asked how the large seized cattle became small despite claiming 19 lakh taka in maintenance costs, he replied, “Brother, the cattle were confined in farms, so this happened.”
When questioned about their motive for taking custody of the cattle from the court, given their residence near the Doarabazar border and the seizure of smuggled cattle in the Sadar Upazila, and whether they were involved in smuggling and sold the 76 cattle at high prices to replace them with smaller ones for the auction, Jahangir Alam Mintu said, “The cattle were from the Boglabazar market, so 25/26 of us went to take custody.”
Regarding the widespread allegations, Jahangir stated, “No, no, there are police, BGB, and DB at the border; this shouldn’t happen. Even if it does, brother, I don’t know about it,” avoiding the topic.
