'Golden Monir' placed on 18-day remand

Businessman Monir Hossain, locally known as Golden Monir, has been placed on 18-day remand in three separate cases lodged with Badda Police Station in capital Dhaka.

In an overnight drive on Friday, the Rapid Action Battalion nabed him from his Merul Badda home on charges of possessing illicit firearms and drugs.

Dhaka's Additional Metropolitan Magistrate Abu Bakr Siqqiue granted 14-day remand against Monir in two cases under Arms Act, and Special Powers Act while Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Masudur Rahman placed him on four-day remand in drug case.

Earlier today, police produced him before Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Court and sought 21-day remand in the three cases.

A team of RAB-3 on information conducted a drive at Monir owned six-storey building in DIT Project area from Friday midnight to Saturday morning.

During the drive, they arrested Monir and recovered a foreign pistol, a few round of bullets, foreign liquor and foreign currencies of about Tk 9 lakh.

The elite force seized eight kgs gold and cash around Tk 1.9 crore from his possession.

They also seized five luxurious cars with no valid documents owned by Monir.

In a press conference, RAB said basically apprehended Monir is a Hundi trader, gold smuggler and land broker. 

He was salesman of a cloth shop at city's Gausia Market in 1990s. Leaving it, he started crockery shop business and then luggae business evading tax.

In one stage, he involved himself with gold smuggling and brought a huge amount of gold here from abroad through illegal routes that famed him as Golden Monir.

Monir was also a land grabber who in collusion with some dishonest officials of RAJUK became owner of more than 200 plots in DIT Project, Badda, Nikunja, Uttara and Keraniganj areas.