Animal feed for prisoners!

The recovered pulse is part of the quantity contained in 175 sacks supplied by three contractors, sources said.

Out of the total supplies, pulse contained in 43 sacks have already been used and supplied to prisoners as food, the sources said.

A special three-member team led by Additional IG (Prison) Col. Sirajul Karim detected the substandard pulse during the raid.

The team was sent by Inspector General (Prison) Brig. Gen. Zakir Hosain following complaints of corruption by jail officials.

Three contractors Abul Hossain, Shahjahan and Selim-- supplied the substandard ankor pulse instead of Masur pulse specified in the official deal with jail authorities, the sources said.

When contacted over phone, IG Prison Brig Gen Zakir Hossain confirmed recovery of uneatable ankor pulse and said, "Stern action will be taken against the persons responsible after investigating the committee report.

Karim said his team interviewed all jail officials and employees and collected evidences during the raid.

"Anker pulse is generally imported from India and is not allowed in jails as it is generally used as animal feed", he said.

The raid was conducted following report of a three-member special intelligence team headed by Mainul Islam, sent to the jail earlier to probe various allegations of corruption by jail officials.

The intelligence team had detected that pulse contained in 12 sacks were hurriedly shifted to the inner godown from outer one. Later, they found 114 such sacks at the outer godown.

"About 40 to 50 per cent of the pulse are putrefied and affected with insects", said Mainul Islam.

The special intelligence team was sent secretly to investigate previous allegations of corruption, in which some high jail officials were allegedly involved.