About 53 tonnes of sugar, worth around Tk 33 lakh, has been stolen from a warehouse of state-owned Kushtia Sugar Mills.

The whole amount of sugar has been vanished broad day light in day after day. A member of the committee to find out where the sugar gone, did not want to be named, termed the disappearance of sugar as sugar theft.

He said that this misdeed has been done in broad daylight but invisibly.

The five-member inquiry committee, headed by Additional Secretary to the Industries Ministry Shivnath Roy, conducted the probe on Monday (June 8th). The members of the inquiry committee are Anwarul Alam, joint secretary of the ministry, Ainul Haque, planning chief of Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation, Elias Sikder, deputy general manager and Hamidul Islam, acting general manager.

A probe committee, formed by the mill authorities, has filed a general diary with Kushtia Model Police Station over the matter.

The industries ministry has also launched an investigation and members of a committee formed by it visited the spot on Monday.

Sources said the mill was supposed to have 121 tonnes of sugar in its reserve, but the latest stock statement revealed that the sugar was missing.

The matter first came to light on June 3 when the mill authorities received a report on the stock situation, prepared by store keeper Faridul Islam. The report had several discrepancies.

Faridul on June 5 was suspended as he failed to give any explanation over the discrepancy, the sources said.

There is an old example of theft of sugar /

Various sources of the sugar mill say that there is an old instance of theft of sugar in this sugar mill. Earlier, on November 17, 2020, the then managing director of Kushtia Sugar Mills Golam Murshed, CBA president of the sugar mill Faruk Hossain and general secretary Anisur Rahman were suspended for stealing sugar. They are now fired and the case is ongoing.

The way the theft is believed to have taken place /

In this case it seems that the sugar has been stolen for a long time. A strong vicious circle is involved in this work.

A member of the investigation committee said on condition of anonymity that sugar is sold every day in sugar mills. Buyers are likely to call everyone who looks appropriate, if there are only a few. After the sold sugar slip reaches the warehouse, the sugar is taken out from the warehouse. Buyers took the sugar from the sugar mill gate. While there is no opportunity for sugar to come out of the sugar mill warehouse after the sale, it has happened here. Sacks of sugar have also come out of the warehouse and the sugar has been sold to the designated buyers of that unscrupulous cycle. But it is believed that these sugar mills were not included in the stock entry.

The inquiry committee said that another incident that could happen here was the issue of making and sending fake sales slips to the warehouse. Since the sugar comes out of the warehouse in broad day light, it may be possible to take the help of a credible fake slip.

"We are sorting out all the issues. There is no doubt that there is a big and strong cycle involved with this,”he said.

Shivnath Roy, additional secretary in the industry ministry and head of the investigation committee, told reporters that documents were being looked into and godowns had been monitored. The ministry will be informed of the contents of the report by today (June 9).

GM (Finance) of the sugar mill Kalyan Kumar Debnath, who is investigating the incident as the head of a four-member committee formed by the sugar mill authorities, said over the phone that a gang had taken the sugar mill hostage. A lot of things are waiting to be unveiled. The matter is not worthy of publication in the media right now.

Kushtia Model Police Station Officer-in-Charge Sabbirul Alam said the GD of the sugar mill authorities had said that 53 tonnes of sugar had 'disappeared'. As the matter is official, it has been shifted to the Kushtia Anti-Corruption Office.

Rakibur Rahman, GM (administration) of the sugar mill, said a group of people had done the job. I can't say anything here as there is a high level investigation going on.