EIGHTY-FIVE sacks of urea fertiliser have been seized and three persons arrested in Sirajganj and Lalmonirhat.
   In Sirajganj, the police seized 80 sacks of fertiliser from the Natuarpara area in Kazipur upazila on Tuesday.
   The police said they had seized the fertiliser from four warehouses of four dealers when they were trying to sell those to farmers illegally without the permission of the Department of Agriculture Extension.
   However, the owners of the warehouses, Md Atab Ali, Moti Mian, Zahurul Islam and Salam Bapari managed to escape.
   A case was registered with the Kazipur police station.
   In Lalmonirhat, three persons were arrested in possession of five sacks of smuggled urea fertiliser in the bordering village of Dhubni under Hatibandha upazila in Lalmonirhat on Monday night.
   The Hatibandha police produced them before a Lalmonirhat court on Tuesday and the court remanded them to jail custody.
   According to the police, the arrested are Ashraf Hossain, 30, Atoyar Hossain, 32, and Yusuf Ali, 28, of Nowdabash and Dhubni villages under the upazila. They were caught red-handed at about 11:00pm on Monday while carrying the fertiliser from the shop of fertiliser dealer Monwar Hossain Dulu at Nowdabash to the house of Rahim Uddin, a ringleader of smugglers, at the bordering Dhubni village.
   Monwar and Rahim have been absconding since the arrest. A case was lodged with the Hatibandha police.

A CHAPAINAWABGANJ court on Tuesday sentenced three persons to death in a murder case.
   The convicts are Alom, 25, of Lakshmipur Masterpara, Tito, 30, of Lakshmipur Kaiapara of Baroghoria union and Babu, 25, of Moharajpur Chaktola of Moharajpur union under the Chapainawabganj district headquarters.
   According to the prosecution, the convicts killed a 12-year-old boy, Suman, son of Mahtab Uddin of Lakkhipur Masterpara for ransom. They first abducted the boy and demanded Tk 2 lakh from his father over phone for his release on October 2, 2006. Grandfather of the victim filed a case with the police.
   But on October 5 of that year local people caught the three and handed them over to the police. Later, according to their confession, the police recovered the decomposed body of Suman from a cropland.
   The police submitted charge sheet on March 12, 2007.
   After examining the evidence of 13 witnesses, the district and sessions judge, Hrishikesh Saha, handed down the verdict.
   The Sirajganj correspondent adds: A district court on Monday sentenced a person to 14 years’ rigorous imprisonment in a forged note case.
   The court also fined the convict Tk 10 thousand, in default, to suffer another one year imprisonment.
   The convict is Abdur Rashid, 27, of village Shialkole under the district headquarters.
   According to the prosecution, the Detective Branch of police seized three fake notes of Tk 500 denomination in possession of Rashid at Sonamukhi Bazar under Kazipur upazila on February 9, 2005.
   The police recorded a case against him.
   The district and sessions judge, Biplab Goshwamee, delivered the judgement.

FIVE shops were burnt in a fire at Pipulbaria Bazar of Baghati union under the Sirajganj district town Tuesday.
   Local people said the cotton shop of one Abu Taleb fist caught fire by a fag end of a customer at about 11:30am. The blaze soon engulfed the four other shops.
   After about three hours of effort the local people managed to control the fire.
   Shop owners estimated the loss at Tk 10 lakh.