Ex-govt official arrested for hoarding soybean oil

A former government official has been arrested on charge of hoarding as much as 512 litres of soybean oil in his house in the last six days with a view to making more profit.

Mohammadpur police arrested Layekuzzaman, a former official of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), from Lalmatia area in the capital during a raid on Friday (March 11) night.

“It’s a criminal offence to keep 512 litres of soybean oil at anyone’s house,” said Biplob Kumar Sarker, deputy commissioner (Tejgaon Division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) at a press conference on Saturday.

He said Layekuzzaman showed them a receipt of Shurjo Enterprize at Krishi Market. After scrutinising the receipt, it was found that he bought only 40  litres of soyabean oil at Tk 159 per litre from there. The rest of the oil was collected from different places. Later, Layekuzzaman himself wrote oil prices on the same receipt of Shurjo Enterprise.

Layekuzzaman thought that the edible oil prices would go up during the coming Ramadan and he would be able to make brisk profit.

A case was filed under Special Powers Act against Layekuzzaman with Mohammadpur Police Station. He will be produced before court seeking to place him on a seven-day remand.

Layekuzzaman worked at the Department of Agricultural Extension as a deputy assistant.

“We will investigate from whom the arrested person collected the oil and for how much money he spent for it,” Biplob Kumar Sarker said.