BPDB’s former chief engineer lands in jail

Staff Correspondent: Shahidul Alam, a former chief engineer of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), landed in jail after a Dhaka court rejected his bail in two corruption cases filed against him by Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

Metropolitan Magistrate Kazi Kamrul Islam passed the order on Tuesday after Shahidul Alam surrendered before the court accompanied by his lawyer seeking bail in the cases.

According to the court sources, it was learnt that the High Court (HC) granted his client a six-week ad-interim bail in the cases on November 6 last year and also directed Shahidul to surrender before the Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court of Dhaka after the period expires.

As per the HC directives, the accused surrendered before the Sessions Court on December 27 last year and secured bail till March 1. But as he did not appear before the court on the scheduled date, it directed the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court of Dhaka to issue arrest warrants against him.

The CMM court on March 14 issued arrest warrants against Shahidul in the cases. Following the order Shahidul appeared before the court and sought bail.

On August 25 last year, the ACC filed the two cases against Shahidul -- one for acquiring illegal wealth and the other for laundering an amount of Tk 1.70 crore -- with Kalabagan and Ramna police stations respectively.

Tthe ACC found that Shahidul acquired wealth through illegal means when he worked at the BPDB, according to the prosecution of the first case filed with Ramna Police Station.

After examining his wealth report submitted to it, the ACC found that Shahidul accumulated illegal wealth worth over Tk 24.42 lakh, which was not mentioned in his wealth statement.

According to the case statement of the second case filed with Kalabagan Police Station, Shahidul opened accounts in different banks hiding his identity and deposited over Tk 1.80 crore, which he earned through illegal means, to these accounts.


risingbd/Dhaka/March 27, 2018/Mamun Khan/AI