BSRM knew it was illegally buying property: Report

Bangladesh Steel Re-Rolling Mills (BSRM) knew very well that it was illegally buying state-owned Modern Karilin Silk Mills of Chittagong from Mohammad Ishaque, chairman of the board of directors of the mill, according to an investigation report. The investigation committee submitted the probe report on April 12 last year. Members of the committee were Md Abdur Razzak, the then director of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Corporation (BTMC), Md Abul Hossain, additional deputy commissioner of Chittagong, Md Sarwar Hossain, joint director of Bangladesh Bank, and Saifuddin Ahmed Mazumder, the then deputy secretary of the jute and textiles ministry.

According to the report, BSRM had “grabbed” the property under the pretext of buying it. “The sale deed between BSRM and Mohammad Ishaque, chairman of Modern Karilin Silk Mills, is illegal,” declared the report.

“BSRM cannot buy the mill under any circumstances. Before buying any moveable property, the buyer needs to check out with its legal owner. They had bought the government mill knowingly because the piece of land was necessary for them, as it is adjacent to their factory. They have made it part of their campus,” said Md Abdur Razzak, convener of the probe committee. A former director of BTMC, Md Abdur Razzak is currently the project director of a construction project under the Fire Services and Civil Defence.

“The government handed over the mill to the workers, not for sale. BSRM knew it. They bought the mill, knowing everything,” said Mazumder.

Flouting the conditions of the contract between the government and the workers and employees of the mills, a large piece of land of the mill was illegally sold to BSRM with the help of forged documents in November 2010 at Tk 17.34 crore. But industry insiders say the price of the land would be over Tk 100 crore.

According to a gazette notification of the textiles and jute ministry, and the condition
of the handover deed between the government and the mill’s workers and employees, there is no provision to sell or buy Karilin Silk Mills located along the Dhaka-Chittagong highway in Fauzdarhat Industrial Area.

Without any permission of the board of directors and keeping the shareholders in dark, Mohammad Ishaque, chairman of the mills, had sold the property illegally, said the report.
Bangladesh Textile Mills Corporation (BTMC) chairman Brig. Gen. Md. Bayezid Sarwar acknowledged that BSRM knew very well that Mohammad Ishaque was not authorised to sell the mills. “BSRM did it knowingly and tried mutating the land. But we’ve filed a case against it. The government is taking necessary action,” he added. When asked why BSRM bought the land illegally, Tapan Sengupta, executive director of BSRM, said, “I won’t comment on the issue. We’ve bought an empty land at proper prices.” When asked about the ministry gazette notification barring the sale of moveable and immoveable assets of the mills, Sengupta said he was not aware of the gazette notification.    (Concluded)