Gen Tarique Siddique, 18 others sued for embezzling Tk812cr from Dhaka, Sylhet, Cox's Bazar airports

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has filed four cases against 19 officials, including former prime minister's security affairs adviser Major General (retd) Tarique Ahmed Siddique, over embezzling Tk812 crore from three airports in the country.

They are facing charges over embezzling money from the development projects of the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Sylhet Osmani International Airport, and Cox's Bazar Airport, ACC Director General (Prevention) Md Akhtar Hossain briefed reporters this afternoon (27 January).

Former secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism Mohibul Haque, former chairman of Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh Air Vice Marshal (Retd) M Mafidur Rahman and former joint secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism Janendranath Sarkar were also named as accused in the cases.

The ACC director general further mentioned a project named "Installation of RADAR with CNS-ATM (Communication, Navigation and Surveillance-Air Traffic Management" in the  Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. Aeroness International Limited was involved in the project work through a co-contract. For this project, Mahbubul Anam who is director of the Aeroness International Limited, used Tarique's name and association to influence former secretary Mohibul and former joint secretary Janendranath Sarkar. They then signed a contract with the French company Thales LAS on a G2G basis and gave work orders for their own financial gains.

The ACC investigation revealed that in this project, they illegally increased the project costs by violating the existing provisions of the procurement process and gave work orders to their preferred contractors, and embezzled about Tk200 crore in collusion with Aeroness International Limited. A total of 10 people, including Tarique, have been accused in this case.

Another Tk250 crore was embezzled from the third terminal expansion project of the same airport. Its work order was given to a company named Aviation Dhaka Consortium (ADC). Here too, Aeroness International Limited is allegedly the subcontractor. 

The ACC's initial investigation shows that in violation of the prevailing rules and regulations, the amount of money for the estimated project of Tk13,000 crore was increased to Tk21,000 crore. Ten, including Tarique, were accused in this case.

Besides, Tk212 crore was allegedly embezzled from the expansion project of the Sylhet Osmani International Airport, and Tk150 crore from the terminal construction and runway development project at the Cox's Bazar Airport.