DHAKA — Police have arrested three people in connection with a fire at Bangladesh’s Directorate of Primary Education, saying the blaze that destroyed laptops in a store room was deliberately set.
A male sanitation worker named Asmaul Islam set the fire while wearing a burqa, police said. He had a 500,000-taka contract to do so, they said.
Mostaq Sarkar, deputy commissioner of the Mirpur division of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, announced the arrests at a news conference at the police media center on Saturday night.
Asmaul worked at the directorate as a sanitation worker on a master roll contract. Based on information he provided, the other two arrested were the store in-charge Zinat Ali Biswas and the master roll store keeper Humayun Kabir Khan, police said.
The fire broke out in the store room on the second floor of the directorate early Friday. The room held 735 laptops that had been kept for distribution to the field, police said.
The fire completely destroyed 140 laptops, severely damaged 29, partially damaged 33 and left 450 untouched. Another 83 laptops are unaccounted for, police said.
Mostaq said at the news conference that information had emerged tying at least three people, including two others working there, to Asmaul’s act.
“The fire was set to damage the laptops and other goods kept in the store room,” he said. “We have learned that the damage from the fire was about 20 million to 30 million taka.”
Police identified one suspect immediately after the incident using information technology, Mostaq said.
“After identifying him, we cross-checked whether he was really involved. After confirming, we arrested him and took him into custody,” he said.
Under initial questioning, Asmaul provided information about three others involved, of whom two have been arrested, Mostaq said.
“Based on the information we received, another person named Hridoy has been identified. The process to arrest him is ongoing,” he said.
“We are investigating the matter,” Mostaq said. “We are working to find out the main motive and whether anyone else is involved in the planning. We will apply to the court to take them into custody for close questioning, and we hope to uncover the main motive.”
Answering a question, he said: “They have said some things that need to be further verified. Many issues are before us. This is a government building, the laptops were kept for field distribution, and we need to know why the fire was set at this time.”
“The person who set the fire works there. What is the motive of the others? We have learned that the person who set the fire was offered a financial inducement. A 500,000-taka contract was agreed for the job. Of that, 80,000 taka in cash was paid, and he bought various things with it. We have this information, and recovering the items and other work will take some time.”
He said: “Since the investigation is ongoing, not everything can be disclosed. That could hamper the work.”
While 83 laptops are unaccounted for, CCTV footage shows no evidence that anything was removed from the location, police said.
Asked who the 500,000-taka contract was with, he said: “So far, we have learned that they discussed the matter among themselves.”
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report