The details secret information regarding National Board of Revenue (NBR) officer Matiur Rahman was revealed after the scam of ‘purchasing high-priced goat’ by his son. He lost his position in NBR and was also removed from the post of director of Sonali Bank. Now, the much-talked-about Sadeeq Agro Firm was also stuck in ‘The Rope of the Goat.’ Already, the matter of Sadeeq Agro owner Shah Imran Hossain’s involvement in cattle smuggling was published in various media. He and his syndicate was involved in smuggling various species of cows from countries like India, Thailand, Myanmar, USA and others using illegal routes.
Then he sold them at a high price. In the sacrificial market, the prices of cows and goats have been excessively inflated. After this, complaints were raised about Sadeeq Agro occupying canal land in Mohammadpur and building a farm. Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) conducted a raid yesterday to evict this illegal structure. In the raid, two establishments of Sadeeq Agro were vacated and the goods were auctioned. The cow-mafia empire fell after the completion of this raid.
The Executive Officer and Executive Magistrate Motakabbir Ahmed of DNCC Zone-5 conducted the eviction operation on Thursday in Satmasjid Housing and Nabinagar Housing in Mohammadpur Thana. People started removing various structures including tin houses, rickshaw garages since morning after getting the news of eviction of illegal structures of Ramchandra canal. At that time they said that local leaders of Awami League used to collect house rent and electricity bills from them. The eviction operation was supposed to start at 10 am but senior officials of DNCC reached the spot at 12pm. Later, according to the documents, the eviction of Sadeeq Agro's office and goat farm began. On the ground floor of the building is Sadiq Agro's office, cow and goat farm, and the owners live on the second floor. Sadeeq Agro's office was first demolished in the raid. After that, the operation was conducted again to remove the goats in the farm. In the raid, the two-storey building with the cow-goat farm was demolished. However, after hearing the news of the raid, Sadeeq Agro removed the cows from the farm on Wednesday night.
The owner was not seen during the eviction of the illegal part of the farm. No official from the company has spoken about the eviction. But several employees of the farm said that this place is not the property of Sadeeq Agro. The owner has rented it. Apart from this, the workers of the eviction campaign bulldozed the rickshaw garage and house located behind Sadeeq Agro. Locals said that initially Sadeeq Agro had a farm on a small scale. Later, the company increased the size of their business day by day. At first it was privately owned, but later the water development board and the canal occupied a large amount of land and built cantonments. Cows, goats, dumbass, camels are kept in shelters made of iron fence. The same farm currently produces and sells milk and various dairy products, the price of which is beyond the reach of common people. Allegedly, Sadiq Agro has rampantly inflated the prices of cattle and goats in the Qurbani market. The price of some cows is several times higher. Same thing is also observed with goats. The price of goats is demanded several times higher according to their individual weight. They also sold cows and goats at several times higher prices by deceiving the buyers.
Another farm of Sadeeq Agro in Nabinagar Housing near Mohammadpur Dam was also razed. After the eviction, the goods are sold at auction. DNCC Executive Magistrate Motakabbir Ahmed confirmed the matter. Motakabbir said, after eviction of illegal structures, seized goods were sold in open auction. One of the people present at the auction bought all the goods for Tk 67, 500.”
He asked to remove the goods bought at the auction as soon as possible. The executive magistrate also said, "There’s policy regarding the canal. No structure can be located within 30 feet of the canal. Land owners’ paper showed 4 percentiles, but they occupied 1 bigha. And we have evicted the illegal structures, not the land owner. We have evacuated the part that is inside the canal.”
On December 23, 2019, Sadeeq Agro's farm was demolished by the Bangladesh Water Development Board. Kabir bin Anwar, the then secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources, led the raid. However, the place was not occupied for even a year after his eviction. Tin-shed was rebuilt after taking over the canal and concrete floors were built.
(The report was published on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on June 28 and rewritten in English by Lutful Hoque Khan)
