Chittagong: A ten-member probe committee has been formed to investigate the seizure of liquid cocaine at Chittagong port on 8 June.

Chittagong Metropolitan Police sources said a ten-member probe committee, headed by Deputy Commissioner (DB) Kusum Dewan, has been formed to look into the incident.

The other committee members include Additional Deputy Commissioner Tanvir Arafat, five assistant commissioners Nirmalendu Bikash Chakrabarty, Jahangir Alam, Kamruzzaman, Mainuddin and Foyjul Islam and three other inspectors.

Kusum Dewan, chief of the committee, said the committee will interrogate the four arrestees, who were arrested and later placed on remand in connection with the incident.  

However, the committee will also inquire whether any inter-continental group had involvement in the cocaine smuggling, she said.

Presence of liquid cocaine was found in 107 drums of a consignment of Bolivian sunflower oil which the customs intelligence officials seized at Chittagong port on 8 June last.  

Laboratory tests on the liquid samples from the consignment have detected cocaine in the 185kg drums, which was imported under the name of Bolivian sunflower oil.

Sub-inspector of Bandar Police Station Osman Goni filed a case against Nur Mohammad, owner of ‘Khan Jahan Ali Limited’, and its employee Sohel under the Narcotics Control Act on 28 June.

Police arrested Sohel soon after the consignment seizure and he was put on 5-day police custody.

On 2 July, a Chittagong court placed three people, arrested from the capital on 30 June in connection with the seizure of liquid cocaine at Chittagong Port, on a 10-day remand each.

Those who were remanded are Atiqur Rahman, commercial executive of Mondol Group, a garment exporter company, A K Azad, manager of Cosco Bangladesh Shipping Lines Ltd and Mostafa Kamal, an official of a developer company.