Photo : Collected
Several officials of the Department of Livestock Services (DLS) are going to be caught in the net of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for committing irregularities and corruption in association with Sadeeq Agro. The ACC has already collected various types of information about them. It is said that a case may be filed against all these officials this week.
According to ACC sources, 15 cattle of the banned Brahma breed are supposed to be slaughtered and sold at a fair price through the mobile sales centre. But several DLS officials and the owner of the farm, Imran Hossain, are being caught for returning them alive to Sadeeq Agro. The farm has already come up in several ACC raids.
A senior officer of the ACC told The Daily Messenger that various documents related to irregularities and corruption have been collected during the operation for several days. It found the truth of the incident. A report has also been submitted to the commission and the documents are now under scrutiny. In this regard, the case is going to be prepared this week.
Several officials of the ACC said that several officials of the Central Government Cow Breeding and Dairy Farm as well as the DLS are involved in the Brahma cow scandal. Imran Hossain and the related parties are accused of abuse of power, fraud, violation of government directives, and illegal profit in the name of selling meat of 448 cattle (including 15 Brahmas) of the government in collusion with each other.
According to the ACC information, Imran Hossain brought 18 Brahma cows from the United States with fake documents in 2021, claiming them as Shahiwal cows. The customs department seized these cows at the airport. Subsequently, the cows were handed over to the DLS on the order of the High Court. Later, the owner of Sadeeq Agro, Imran Hossain, colluded with the officials of the department and took the cows back to Sadeeq Agro.
The ACC conducted raids on central cow breeding and dairy farms, Sadeeq Agro's two farms in Mohammadpur and one in Narsingdi, the office of the DLS, and the customs office of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport after receiving a complaint in this regard. A team led by ACC Assistant Director Abul Kalam Azad recovered six Brahma cows from the farm of Sadeeq Agro during these raids and seized them.
Apart from this, seven more calves of Brahma breed are available in this farm. On the other hand, the ACC has also got the record of giving Brahma cow semen (seed) to five cows at Sadeeq Agro. Several members of the raiding team said evidence of the collection of tens of thousands more was found.
Meanwhile, the ACC's raid team went to Khamarbari DLS last Thursday. They collected documents on those involved in the process of slaughtering Brahma cows and other cattle and selling them at fair prices through mobile sales centres last Ramadan.
Earlier, on July 3, the ACC conducted a raid and recovered six cows out of 15 from Sadeeq Agro in Mohammadpur. They are recorded as slaughtered in the government records. Earlier on July 1, seven Brahma calves were found at Sadeeq Agro's farm. In that day's raid, documents were also found on giving seeds (semen) to five cows of this breed for artificial insemination.
Messenger/Fameema
