Sadeeq Agro owner Md Imran Hossain, who was sent to jail in a case of laundering Tk 133 crore on Tuesday, hours after his arrest in Dhaka鈥檚 Malibagh area, was selling domestic cows and goats at higher price by advertising those as foreign breeds.
鈥業mran has illegally earned about Tk 121,32,15,144 by fraudulently advertising domestic cows and goats as foreign and pedigree cows/goats and selling them at high prices in the sacrificial animal market,鈥� Criminal Investigation Department鈥檚 additional DIG (organised crime) Ekramul Habib told a press briefing at the CID headquarters.
The CID officer said that Imran led an organised criminal gang which had been involved in smuggling cows and buffaloes from Thailand and Myanmar to Bangladesh through Teknaf and Ukhia border of Cox鈥檚 Bazar alongside small-sized Bhutti cows from Bhutan and Nepal and selling them.
Imran fraudulently took away 15 Brahma cows after showing those as slaughtered in the paper for selling meat at fair price. The customs house earlier seized the cows and the government instructed to slaughter the cows under the custody of Bangladesh Central Cattle Breeding and Dairy Farm, Savar and sold the meat at fair price.聽
Imran and his accomplices earned Tk 11,36,91,200 through illegal means and opened FDRs in the name of his company Jalalabad Metal Limited and transferred the money into laundered assets.
Apart from these, he was conducting his illegal business activities by filling and occupying the Ramchandrapur government canal in Beribadh area of Mohammadpur police station in the capital.
He made transactions of about Tk 121,32,15,144 through various bank accounts.
On March 3, a case was registered with Mohammadpur police station against Imran, owner of the Sadeeq Agro, its managing director Touhidul Alam Zenith, 45, and four to five unidentified individuals under section 4(2)/4(4) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2012, on charges of money laundering of over Tk 133 crore.
The CID investigation revealed that Imran had initially acquired more than Tk 133 crore through smuggling, fraud and forgery in collaboration with an organised crime gang.
He was produced before the court of Dhaka metropolitan magistrate MA Azharul Islam on Tuesday and the court sent him to jail.
