Relief materials found at Falu’s factory site

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The army-led joint forces seized government relief materials from a business establishment of former BNP lawmaker and businessman Mosaddak Ali Falu in Savar yesterday.

The forces demolished five houses constructed with corrugated iron (CI) sheets, which are actually government relief materials, on the factory premises.

The 40 by 50 feet houses were built for accommodation of the workers of Dhaka Shanghai Ceramics Factory at Gohailbari in Savar.

Seven hundred pieces of CI sheets worth around Tk 4 lakh bear inscriptions, ‘Relief materials of Relief and Rehabilitation Department: Not for sale’.

Police filed a case with Ashulia police station accusing already detained Mosaddak Ali Falu of embezzling government property.

Several other officials of the factory were also accused in the case but their names were not mentioned.

However, the joint forces could not arrest anyone during the drive.

Falu, the owner of two private satellite TV channels ntv and Rtv — and of a newspaper Amar Desh, is now in jail on a 30-day detention. He was charged with anti-state activities, obstruction of public safety, and illegal hoarding.

Sub-Inspector of Ashulia Police Station Ismail Hossain told journalists that one of the houses was built completely with the CI sheets for relief and the most of the portions of the rest of them were also built with the same government relief material.

A very few of the sheets were bought from the market which were mixed with the sheets marked for government relief.

Tipped off, the joint forces cordoned off the houses at 11:00pm on Friday and started their operation yesterday morning, army and police sources said.

The government bought the CI sheets for rehabilitation of the poor and distressed through government assistance during the BNP-Jamaat-led alliance government’s rule. PHP Arabian Horse Limited manufactured the sheets.

The management of Dhaka Shanghai Ceramics Factory Limited used to pay Falu, also the political secretary to the immediate past prime minister, Tk 50,000 a month for arranging accommodations for the workers, sources said.

The workers however said the company did not charge them any rent.

As it was a weekly holiday, the factory was closed yesterday and no company official was there. The workers said the officials did not visit the factory even after the company’s Dhaka office had been informed that the law enforcers were taking away the CI sheets demolishing the houses.

Many local residents thronged the factory premises as they heard that the security personnel were taking away CI sheets from the former powerful BNP lawmaker’s factory.

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