Buyer of cables stolen from PMO lands in jail

A court has sent Md Mahbub Hasan, 34, to jail over charges of purchasing copper cables stolen from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) at the Secretariat.

Metropolitan Magistrate Kamal Uddin passed the order on Friday, June 12, following a remand plea by the investigation officer, said court police.

According to case documents, copper cables belonging to the Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) were stolen from the rooftops of old buildings 1, 2 and 3 at the Secretariat between May 22 and June 1. The stolen cables, approximately 110 metres in length, had a market value of around Tk 1.05 lakh.

Following the incident, BTCL official Md Faisal Kabir filed a theft case with Shahbagh Police Station .

Police said two outsourced employees, Ranjan Chandra and Rizakul Islam, were arrested after an investigation using CCTV footage and technical analysis. Ranjan later confessed to the theft, saying the thieves stripped the cables of their copper covering and sold the metal to a scrapyard located adjacent to Dhaka University's Ekushey Hall .

Based on his statement, Md Mahbub Hasan was arrested on charges of buying the stolen goods.

During interrogation, he admitted to purchasing the stolen cables but did not disclose where the copper had been stored, the IO informed the court. The court subsequently ordered him to be sent to jail.