Over the last five years, between Tk 30 crore and Tk 35 crore had been collected annually mainly from the transport sector, according to different estimates.

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Followers of Abul Khair Abdullah, who won the city corporation election on Monday with 87,808 votes, started taking control of the city soon after the ruling Awami League nominated him for mayor two months ago.

Jahangir Hossain, president of Barishal city AL, however, told The Daily Star that no leader or activist of the party was ever involved in "illegal toll collection".

He refused to make comments when asked specifically about Sadiq's and Khair's men.

Sadiq did not answer the calls made by these correspondents.

Talking to reporters, mayor-elect Khair recently said, "I will not tolerate irregularities… I will rather try to solve the crises that were created earlier."

Muhammad Rubel, who drives a battery-run auto-rickshaw, said until about a month ago, everyone operating such rickshaws had to pay Tk 20 every day to the mayor's men.

But several city corporation officials requesting anonymity said the money collected from the battery-run auto-rickshaws over the years was not deposited to the corporation's account.

Abdur Rahim, a traffic inspector of Barishal Metropolitan Police (BMP), said there are around 12,000 auto-rickshaws in the city.

According to an estimate, the total amount collected from auto-rickshaws may reach Tk 8.76 crore a year. The toll collection stopped after the ruling AL decided not to nominate Sadiq.

Transport sector insiders say owners of each CNG-run three-wheeler used to pay the owners' association Tk 500 a month.

The president of the association, Dulal Mia, is known as a close aide to Sadiq. People in the sector say most of the money collected in the name of the association used to be taken by Dulal. This activity also came to an end in mid-April.