The High Court has cleared the way for the lower court concerned to run the trial of a corruption case filed over the disappearance of about 1.43 tonnes coal worth Tk 243.28 crore from Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Ltd (BCMCL) in Dinajpur.
The HC rejected three separate petitions filed by six former BCMCL officials, who are accused in the case, challenging the trial court order that on November 25 last year framed charges against them. The HC bench of Justice SM Kuddus Zaman and Justice Md Riaz Uddin Khan rejected the petitions considering that those were not presented properly.
Supreme Court lawyers Barrister Rokanuddin Mahmud and Mustafizur Rahman Khan appeared for the petitioners, while Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan represented the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in the court.
The six accused in the petitions sought exemption from the charges in the corruption case. The accused petitioners include former BCMCL officials Abu Taher Md Nuruzzaman Chowdhury, former general manager (mine operation); Abul Kashem Prodhania, Md Abdul Aziz Khan, SM Nurul Aurangajeb, Md Kamruzzaman and Md Aminuzzaman.
On July 22 in 2018, the Barapukuria thermal power plant in Dinajpur was shut down due to an acute shortage of coal after 142,000 tonnes of coal disappeared from the plant, causing power shortages in the northern region of the country.
On July 24 in 2018, Mohammad Anisur Rahman, administration manager of the BCMCL, filed the corruption case with Parbatipur Model Police Station against the 19 BCMCL officials under sections 5(2) and 409 of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act in connection with disappearance of the coal.
The 19 people are: Abu Taher Md Nuruzzaman Chowdhury, general manager (mine operation); Khaledul Islam, deputy general manager; Habib Uddin Ahmed, managing director; Masudur Rahman Hawladar, general manager (general services); Ashok Kumar Hawladar, manager (production management); Arifur Rahman, manager (maintenance and operation);Zahidul Islam manager (design, construction and maintenance); Akramul Haque deputy manager (safety management);Khalilur Rahman, deputy manager (coal handling and management).
Morsheduzzaman, deputy manager (maintenance and operation);HabiburRahman, deputy manager (production management);Zahidur Rahman, deputy manager (mine development);Sattyen Nath Barman, assistant manager (ventilation management); Syed Imam Hasan, manager (security);Zobaer Ali, deputy general manager (mine planning operation); Abdul Mannan Patwari, former general manager (finance) and Gopal Chandra Saha, general manager (finance); and Abul Kashem Prodhania and Mosharaf Hossain, former general manager (exploration) and secretary of the company.
Later, the case was transferred to the ACC and the commission submitted the charge-sheet against 23 people, including seven former managing directors of the company, in the case. ACC Deputy Director Md Shamsul filed the chargesheet with its Dinajpur offices.
According to the case statement, the accused officials were behind the missing 1.43 lakh tonnes of coal. The estimated market price of the missing coal is over Tk 243,28,82,501.84, which the officials allegedly misappropriated between January 2006 and July 19 in 2018.
According to BCMCL officials, the company produced around 1.0166 crore tonnes of coal from 2005 till June 29 this year. Of those, 66.87 lakh tonnes of coal was supplied to BPDB and 33.19 lakh tonnes of coal was sold to different companies and brickfield operators.
