98,379 sacks of rice, wheat seized in Ctg

A mobile court yesterday seized 98,379 sacks of rice and wheat from two warehouses at Sitakunda and fined their owner Tk 20,000 on charge of hoarding the food grains.

Md Kamruzzaman, assistant commissioner (land) of Sitakunda, led the mobile court drive in Kumira area in the morning.

Earlier on Tuesday night, two warehouses just behind the International Islamic University Chittagong (IIUC) building were sealed off by Sitakunda's Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Nazmul Islam Bhuiyan.

The warehouses belonged to one Hazi Abul Kalam where 77,920 sacks of rice and 20,459 sacks of wheat were hoarded illegally, said AC (land) Md Kamruzzaman.

“As per law imported rice and wheat cannot be stocked for more than one month. But the rice and wheat were stocked at the warehouses on July 14,” he added.

He further said the rice was imported by BSM Syndicate and the wheat by Noapara Group.

“As owner Abul Kalam admitted his guilt, he was fined Tk 20,000 and all the rice and wheat were seized,” he added.

UNO Nazmul said the upazila administration conducted a drive on the warehouses on Tuesday night and sealed those off in presence of police as the documents were not proper.