Four people, including a local Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader, have been arrested in Pirojpur over allegations of demanding extortion money from a contractor involved in a national grid substation project.
Police arrested Salam Sheikh from Keraniganj in Dhaka on Sunday (30 August), while the other three suspects were detained in the Kadamtala area of Pirojpur.
The other arrested individuals are Hasib Sheikh, 27, president of the Kadamtala Union Chhatra Dal; Raju Sheikh, 32, general secretary of the union unit of the Sramik Dal; and Ashraful Islam, former president of the union Sramik Dal.
The arrests followed a case filed at Pirojpur Sadar Police Station on Sunday by Md Zakir Hossain of the Kumarakhali area of Pirojpur town. The case was filed over an alleged demand for extortion on 27 August.
According to police and the case statement, Ringtech Limited, a contracting company, is carrying out construction work on a national grid substation beside the Dhaka-Pirojpur highway. As part of the project, Tahsin Enterprise is extracting sand from a river and transporting it through pipelines to designated areas for land filling. Zakir Hossain is responsible for the sand-filling work on behalf of the enterprise.
The case statement alleges that Zakir began transporting and depositing sand through pipelines at the project site on 13 August. Shortly after the work began, Salam Sheikh, president of the Kadamtala Union BNP, allegedly pressured him to enter into a partnership.
When Zakir declined, Salam allegedly demanded one taka for every cubic foot of sand deposited as extortion. According to Zakir’s complaint, the demand amounted to around Tk 1 million in total.
The complaint also alleges that Zakir was told that workers from outside Kadamtala Union could not be brought in for the project and that local people had to be employed instead. He claims that he was threatened with disruption of the work if he refused to pay the demanded money.
The situation escalated on the early morning of 26 August, when unidentified people allegedly entered the project area and damaged the pipeline used to transport sand. Around 1 to 1.5 kilometres of pipeline were reportedly damaged, causing an estimated loss of Tk 150,000, according to the case statement.
The damage was discovered the following morning. The pipeline was subsequently repaired and the sand-filling operation resumed.
Salam Sheikh, however, denied the extortion allegations when contacted by telephone on 28 August, before his arrest. He said he had not demanded any money from the contractor. According to him, some local youths had asked for money to cover tea and refreshments, but he later resolved the matter.
At the time, Salam said he was in Dhaka. He also denied having any knowledge of the damage to the pipeline.
Pirojpur Sadar Police Station Officer-in-Charge Md Shariful Islam confirmed the arrests. He said Salam Sheikh had been arrested in Dhaka in connection with the extortion case, while the other three suspects were arrested in the Kadamtala area.
The police officer said the three suspects, excluding Salam Sheikh, had been sent to jail through the court. Police were taking Salam Sheikh to Pirojpur, and he was scheduled to be produced before the court on Monday.
The allegations against the four suspects will now be examined through the legal process. The investigation is also expected to establish the circumstances surrounding the alleged extortion demand and the subsequent damage to the project pipeline.
