He is a Bangladesh born Spaniard. His family members campaign to protect and conserve the environment abroad. But back in his own country, his garment factory in Gazipur pollutes the river Turag. His name is Giasuddin Murad. The Department of Environment yesterday fined him Tk 39 lakh for emptying his factory's untreated waste into the Turag.

The DoE also directed him not to operate the factory until his effluent treatmentplant (ETP) functioned fully.

Acting on a tip-off, a DoE team conducted a drive at the factory, Angel Composite and Knitting Industries, at 6:00am and found that the factory's ETP was switched off, which is a violation of law.

The team led by DoE Director Munir Chowdhury instantly collected samples of the water discharged from the factory and found its oxygen level to be zero.

Giasuddin later came to the DoE and claimed his factory had never switched off the ETP.

He also claimed that one of his sons was a member of the Greenpeace International, a global body that campaigns to protect and conserve the environment.

According to DoE, the factory dyes five tonnes of clothes every day and so far has discharged 1,25,000 cubic metres of waste water into the Turag.

Giasuddin could not be reached for his comments despite repeated attempts at his office phone number as well as a local and a Spanish cellphone numbers.