Opposition MP trying to hush up racket

Detective police led by DB sub-inspector Ashok Shingh on Friday night raided Nababgaj bazaar and Haripotti in the town and detected the huge quantity of spurious mustard oil.

They arrested an employee -- Nirmol Chandra-- and seized a truckload of the oil. Police said that they seized 2000 containers labeled with attractive marking.

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Police lodged a case with Kotwali thana against five persons including Bablu Bonik, one of the alleged producers of the spurious oil.

Police said they had been producing spurious mustard oil and baby food for long and marketing those in northern districts.

The mustard oil was produced by mixing a harmful chemical -Thyocyanide -- with substandard palm oil. The chemical is very harmful for human health. It causes aesthma, heart disease and skin disease, doctors said.

The accused including Bablu Bonik is absconding.

Sources in the Detective Branch police said the lawmaker is lobbing to hush up the case but declined to disclose his name. The lawmaker shelters the culprits as they contribute funds to his party, police said.

Police said during interrogation Nirmol told them that Bablu Bonik and some other traders in Nababgaj bazaar and Haripotti had been producing the spurious mustered oil and baby food for long and marketing those in eight northern districts.

But the place where the spurious food items were produced is yet to be located, DB Sub-inspector Ashok Shingh told this correspondent.

But he reconfirmed that Bablu Bonik is the main man behind racket.

They had been doing the illegal activity in connivance with a section of corrupt police officials, police sources at the Kotwali thana said.

During investigation by this correspondent, a trader at Nababganj bazaar bazaar said that some dishonest businessmen there used to produce spurious mastered oil, substandard soybean and palm oil ahead of the holy month of Ramadan every year.

They were doing the same ahead of Ramadan this year also to earn more profit, he said. The Ramadan is only three weeks from now.