Four people, including a local BNP leader, have been arrested in Pirojpur over allegations of demanding extortion from a contractor working on a national grid substation project.
Police arrested Salam Sheikh, president of the Kadamtala union unit of the BNP, from Keraniganj in Dhaka on Sunday (30 August). The three others were arrested from the Kadamtala area of Pirojpur on the same day.
The other detainees are Hasib Sheikh, 27, president of the Kadamtala union unit of the Chhatra Dal; Raju Sheikh, 32, general secretary of the union unit of the Sramik Dal; and Ashraful Islam, former president of the union unit of the Sramik Dal.
The arrests followed a case filed at Pirojpur Sadar Police Station by Md Zakir Hossain, of the Kumarakhali area of Pirojpur town. He lodged the case on Sunday over an alleged demand for extortion.
According to police and the case statement, a contractor named Ringtech Limited is constructing a substation for the national power grid beside the Dhaka-Pirojpur highway. As part of the project, Tahsin Enterprise has been carrying out sand-filling work by extracting sand from a river and transporting it through pipelines to the designated site. Zakir Hossain is responsible for supervising the work on behalf of the enterprise.
The complaint states that Zakir began transporting sand to the project site through pipelines on 13 August. Soon after the work started, Salam Sheikh allegedly pressured him to enter into a partnership. When Zakir declined, Sheikh allegedly demanded Tk 1 for every cubic foot of sand filled at the site.
Zakir further alleged that, before the work began, Salam Sheikh had demanded around Tk 1 million in total on the basis of Tk 1 per cubic foot of sand. He was also allegedly told that workers from outside Kadamtala would not be allowed to carry out the work and that local people had to be employed instead.
According to the complaint, Zakir refused to pay the demanded money and was subsequently threatened with having the project work stopped. The dispute allegedly escalated on 26 August, when unidentified individuals went to the project site in the early hours and damaged the pipeline used to transport sand.
The case statement says between one and 1.5 kilometres of pipeline were damaged, causing an estimated loss of around Tk 150,000. Workers discovered the damage the following morning. The pipeline was later repaired and the sand-filling operation resumed.
Before his arrest, Salam Sheikh denied the allegations when contacted by telephone on 28 August. He said he had not demanded any extortion money and claimed that some local youths had asked for money to cover tea and refreshments. According to him, he later settled the matter. He also said he was in Dhaka at the time and denied having any knowledge of the damage to the pipeline.
Pirojpur Sadar Police Station Officer-in-Charge Md Shariful Islam confirmed the arrests. He said Salam Sheikh was arrested in Dhaka while the other three were detained in the Kadamtala area in connection with the extortion case.
The three suspects other than Salam Sheikh were subsequently sent to jail through the court, police said. Salam Sheikh was being brought to Pirojpur and was expected to be produced before the court on Monday.
The allegations remain subject to investigation and judicial proceedings. The case concerns a construction project linked to the national electricity grid, while the alleged disruption to the sand-filling operation has also resulted in reported damage to project equipment.
