The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has started an investigation against Mohammadpur's Sadeeq Agro owner, Mohammad Imran Hossain, for illegal import of prohibited Brahman cattle and money laundering activities involving Tk 133 crore.
Despite the Brahman cattle being banned under Bangladesh's Animal Resource Act, Imran Hossain allegedly imported and sold the cattle during the previous government, a matter that had been discussed multiple times but no action was taken.
Additional DIG (Organised Crime unit) of CID Ekramul Habib came up with the remarks on Tuesday afternoon at a press conference at its Malibagh headquarters in the capital Dhaka.
A team of CID on Monday arrested chairman of Sadeeq Agro Imran Hossain from Malibagh area in connection with a Tk 133 crore money laundering case. Earlier in the morning, CID filed a case with Mohammadpur Police station accusing Imran Hossain and his associate Touhidul Alam Zenith under the Money Laundering Act.
Sadeeq Agro chairman sent to jail in money laundering case
He said that Imran Hossain and his associate Touhidul Alam Zenith (45) used to import unauthorized cattle from Thailand and Myanmar by smuggling, cheating and forgery through the Cox’s Bazar region and neighboring areas of Teknaf and Ukhiya.
Additionally, they allegedly smuggled smaller Bhutanese cattle into Bangladesh and sold them under fraudulent claims as purebred animals at high prices, he added.
He further said that Dhaka Customs House detained 15 Brahman cows of arrested Imran and kept those at the Central Cow Breeding and Dairy Farm, Savar as per the government instructions. Imran was asked to sell the meat at a fair price after slaughtering them but he fraudulently showed them slaughtered on the papers and fraudulently took away the cows.
Besides, during investigation it was found that he opened an FDR of Tk 121.32 lakh in the name of importing Brahman cattle, invested it in the name of Jalalabad Metal Limited, a company owned by him, and converted it into laundered assets.
Arrested Imran used to conduct his illegal business activities by filling and forcibly occupying the Ramchandrapur government canal in the Beribandh area of Mohammadpur Police Station, Dhaka.
Imran was sent to jail in a money laundering case.