2.2 lakh litres of edible oil seized in Khulna

A mobile court here on Thursday fined the owners of three edible oil trading business establishments Taka 1.60 lakh for hoarding a total of 222,620 litres of edible oil in the city's Barobazar area.

A special team of the district administration led by its executive magistrate Debashish Bosak conducted raids at different warehouses after getting secret information about the hoarding of a huge quantity of edible oil.

A team of RAB-6 in Khulna led by Sadar Company commander SP Al Asad Bin Mahfuz assisted the mobile court during the drives, reports BSS.

During the raids, the mobile team found 26,780 litres of soyabean oil and 31,800 litres of palm oil at the warehouse of Sonali Enterprise, 31,600 litres of soybean and 63,300 litres of palm oil at the warehouse of 'Saha Traders' and 9,580 litres of soyabean oil and 59,560 litres of palm oil at
the warehouse of Ranajit Biswas and Sons.

Checking related documents, the mobile court found that the three owners of Sonali Enterprise, Saha Traders and Ranjit Biswas and Sons have sold soybean oil at a wholesale price of Taka 183 per litre against Taka 180 per litre fixed by the government.

The owners of three traders failed to show any sales receipts.

The mobile court fined Pradip Saha, owner of Sonali Enterprise Taka 90,000, Dilip Kumar Saha, owner of Saha Traders Taka 30,000 and Ajit Biswas, owner of Ranajit Biswas and Sons, Taka 40,000 and directed them to take necessary measures for selling their stockpiled edible oils at the government fixed prices.

Talking to BSS, magistrate Debashish Basak said that 222,620 litres of hoarded edible oils were recovered from three warehouses in Khulna and the district administration made arrangements to sell the oil at prices fixed by the government.