328 Tonnes of Fertiliser Missing from Government Warehouse in Dinajpur, One Arrested
Around 328 tonnes of fertiliser have allegedly gone missing from a government fertiliser warehouse of the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) in Dinajpur. Police have detained the warehouse custodian, Md Aktarul Islam, 40, in connection with the incident.
He was detained on Monday night (August 24) from the BADC government fertiliser warehouse in Nashipur, Dinajpur Sadar. BADC Dinajpur Assistant Director (Fertiliser) Md Khurshid Alam filed a complaint with Kotwali Police Station over the incident.
According to police and local sources, authorities received information that a large quantity of fertiliser had been sold from the warehouse without approval. Following the report, a team led by Dinajpur Sadar Upazila Nirbahi Officer, BADC Joint Director (Fertiliser) Md Jahangir Alam and Kotwali Police Station Officer-in-Charge Mohammad Nur Nabi conducted an inspection of the warehouse.
During an inventory check on Monday, officials found a significant shortage of fertiliser. The missing stock included 227.45 tonnes of diammonium phosphate (DAP), equivalent to 4,549 sacks, and 100.45 tonnes of muriate of potash (MOP), equivalent to 2,009 sacks.
The estimated value of the missing fertiliser is Tk 67.85 lakh.
According to the complaint, Aktarul failed to produce valid documents, delivery challans, distribution registers or acceptable records to explain the shortage. At one point, he allegedly admitted that part of the missing fertiliser had been supplied to two fertiliser dealers without proper documentation.
He was subsequently handed over to police.
Mohammad Nur Nabi, officer-in-charge of Dinajpur Kotwali Police Station, confirmed that one person had been detained and said legal proceedings were underway.
BADC sources said there are two government warehouses, named Kanchan and Steel, in Nashipur. The warehouses have a combined storage capacity of around 18,000 tonnes and store MOP, DAP and triple superphosphate (TSP) fertilisers.