Photo: Collected
An old oil tanker brought for repair in a shipyard, owned by Three Angle Marine Limited, at Gazaria in Munshiganj has reportedly gone missing.
The owner of the ship, Multiple Equipment and Engineering, and the shipyard authorities filed complaints and counter complaints blaming each other over the incident with Gazaria Police Station, Md Rajib Khan, officer-in-charge of the police station, told the media.
According to shipyard authorities, the oil tanker named 'T Teknaf' was brought to the shipyard about a year ago.
"After repairing the ship, it was anchored in the Meghna River on one side of our shipyard.
"Repairs and berthing charges incurred a bill of Tk30 lakh. We have sent several notices for the bill but it was not paid," said Mozammel Haque, general manager (operations) of Three-Angle Marine Limited.
"Meanwhile, since the morning of 19 May, we have not seen the ship in the shipyard area. We then informed the owner of the ship. We think they have deliberately diverted the ship to avoid paying the money owed. After searching around for 8/9 days we filed a written complaint with the police station on 29 May," Haque added.
Mohiuddin, representative of Multiple Equipment and Engineering Limited, however, claimed that they have paid the bill.
"On 29 May, some representatives of our company went to the shipyard to fetch the ship and found that the ship was not there. We think they either moved the ship or tore it apart [for parts] and sold it.
"The current market value of the ship is more than Tk7 crore. We filed a written complaint with Gazaria police station on 30 May," Mohiuddin said.
OC Md Rajib Khan said an investigation is underway over the matter and more details can be found later.
Messenger/Sumon
