Police start probe over fire at 12 South Line buses

Police have started investigating the fire incident that burnt 12 buses of South Line Paribahan to ashes in Faridpur. 

A three-member investigation committee has been formed by the police and the probe body has been asked to submit a report within five working days.

The buses, kept at a field in Faridpur's Goalchamat area under the custody of a Dhaka court, caught on fire around midnight on Saturday. 

Former Faridpur city Awami League general secretary Sajjad Hossain Barkat and his brother Imtiaz Hasan Rubel are the owners of the buses. 

The two brothers are the prime accused in the much talked about Tk2, 000 crore money laundering case filed in 2020.

Faridpur Kotwali Police Station Inspector Md Gaffar filed a case over the incident on Saturday.

"We are carrying out the investigation focusing on four points. The fire might have been an attempt to get relieved from bank loans and get insurance money. Torching the buses will weaken the case. The victims of the bus owners' fraudulence could have done this to sabotage them," Kotwali Police Station Officer-in-Charge MA Jalil told The Business Standard.

He hoped the police will be able to find out the main reason behind the incident within the shortest possible time.

Meanwhile, bus owner Sajjad Hossain Barkat's wife Suraiya Parvin suspected the incident took place just a few days after a local man moved their vehicles. 

Upon inquiry, the man who moved the buses claimed that he did it to clear the space. He also alleged that the owners staged the fire to save themselves from bank loans.

OC MA Jalil said a total of 22 buses owned by Barakat and Rubel were seized and kept at the field in Goalchamat last year. 

Fire and police officials rushed to the spot upon receiving information and were able to bring the fire under control around 2:30am, he added.

Earlier on 25 February, 2021, the court ordered the seizing of some 5,706 bighas of land and 55 vehicles owned by the Faridpur brothers.

It was CID Inspector SM Miraj Al Mahmud who had filed the money laundering against Barkat and Rubel with Kafrul police station on 26 June 2020. 

They were arrested the same year following a special drive conducted by law enforcers.

According to the case statement, the two accumulated huge illegal assets by controlling the work of various government departments, including the Local Government Engineering Department, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, the Roads and Highways Department in Faridpur between 2010 and 2020.

In addition, they amassed illegal wealth through drug peddling and land grabbing. They have become the owner of 23 buses, trucks and SUVs. 

A significant amount of money was smuggled abroad through hundi. 

Besides, the two brothers were accused of the murder of a lawyer on 20 November 1994 in Rajbari.