The New Nation - Internet Edition

Chittagong Correspondent

Three merchants engaged in delivery order (DO) brokerage at Khatunganj, biggest hub of the wholesalers, allegedly went underground yesterday keeping transactions of nearly 500 millions to fellow traders pending.

This is the second of such incident at Khatunganj in less than a week and recurrence of similar disappearance of merchants is widely known among the fellow traders.

Earlier, a trader went traceless without setting the prices of credit purchase of different commodities worth not less than 800 million. Leading merchants are now working hard to bring the missing trader back to business after amicable negotiations.

The incident of going underground by three of the leading merchants came to the notice of fellow traders when cheques given by the missing merchants started bouncing from the banks concerned.

As the news of cheque frauds went around at the business hub, credit dealing among the fellow merchants was halted. A kind of distrust and frustration shrouded the dynamic business place.

Some of the top merchants declined to call the incident 'fraud and disappearance' disappearance a case of financial insolvency but claimants did not agree with their contention.

Security agencies have been called in to investigate the incident and lend necessary cooperation to the claimants. Leading merchants are learnt to have been negotiating with the bankrupts through their employees and family members.

The trend of cheque frauds at Khatunganj started in 1980 when a number of traders suddenly became traceless leaving behind debts worth about Taka 600 million. Some 109 traders of this business hub did similar fraud over the last two decades and a half.