The mobile court led by Metropolitan Magistrate M Rokonud Doula raided the two electronics goods assembling factories -- Nipu Electronics Company and YP Quality Speakers -- both owned by Sheikh Ibrahim.

The court found the owner guilty of tax evasion as his plants were assembling imported electronic components meant to be sold in the country as spare parts only.

Components imported from different countries were being used in the factories to manufacture various electronics appliances including television, radio, cassette & CD players, refrigerators and speakers.

Magistrate Rokon told The Daily Star that these factories were misleading the consumers by using numerous phoney stickers such as "Made in USA", "Made in Korea", "Made in Japan", etc instead of using stickers stating "Assembled in Bangladesh".

"Besides, they were assembling their goods with imported components that were to be sold as parts only, not for assembling. They were evading a huge amount of tax by doing so."

Joint forces accompanying the mobile court arrested seven employees from the factories. They are Mohammad Ali, brother of the owner, Mohammad Aslam, manager of the two factories, Enamul Haque, Badrudduza, Billal Hossain, Abdul Kuddus and Rafiqul Islam. The court fined each of the arrestees Tk 6 lakh or one year's imprisonment while issuing an arrest warrant against the owner.

The mobile court then referred the case to National Board of Revenue (NBR) for investigation of the tax evasion. Deputy director of NBR Lutfar Rahman was probing the matter to determine the amount of tax evaded by the factories.