Raiders ransack 32 rooms of two Rajshahi govt offices

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Criminals broke into the offices of Rajshahi divisional commissioner and Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) in the city's Srirampur area early yesterday and ransacked 32 rooms of the two adjacent buildings.

The gang tied up the on-duty night guard and confined him to the mosque on the ground floor of the three-storey LGED building and ransacked 20 rooms while other night guards were asleep during the incident. Police rescued the night guard, Khalilur Rahman, from the mosque at around 8:00am.

Rajshahi Metropolitan Police Commissioner Nawsher Ali visited the scenes and told reporters that the criminals entered the rooms of the two building sometime between 3:00am and 4:00am. He declined to give details for the sake of investigation.

According to sources, criminals broke into the divisional commissioner's office by breaking open the main collapsible gate. They broke door locks of 12 rooms on the ground, first and second floors and left 13 steel almiras and several table in the rooms upside down. An official said around Tk 16,000 went missing from an almira and two table-drawers.

Elderly night guard Zamal Shiekh, who was alone in the divisional commissioner's office building on several bighas of land, told this correspondent that he was sleeping on the ground floor when the incident occurred.

"I noticed the main collapsible gate broken when I arose for saying Fazr prayers at around 4:00am. As I found the doors of 12 rooms on the three floors broken, I informed Nazir Abdul Halim of the incident".

The gang ransacked the office rooms of the divisional commissioner, his secretary, additional divisional commissioner and deputy land reform commissioner on the first floor of the three-storey building while other rooms are of accounts, general, revenue and development sections and library on the first and ground floor.

Different law enforcement and intelligence agencies' personnel collected fingerprints and footprints from the scenes. They suspect the criminals entered the rooms to steal important documents.

The LGED Executive Engineer AK Azad said two rooms out of five of the superintendent engineer, 15 rooms out of 16 of the executive engineer and all three rooms

of the executive engineer (Training) were ransacked. He said some 15 steel almiras were vandalised and lockers inside the almiras broken.

Valuables, including computers, laptops and telephone sets in the ransacked rooms of the two buildings were not touched, said the sources.

Two separate robbery cases were filed with Rajpara police station yesterday afternoon.

Divisional Commissioner Hafizur Rahman yesterday formed a three-member committee headed by Additional Divisional Commissioner Swapon Kumar Roy to probe the incident. The committee has been asked to submit report as early as possible.

The LGED department served show cause notices on its three night guards Khalilur Rahman, Rabiul Islam and Mohammad Bablu. Police asked the night guards of the two building not to leave the stations until further order.

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