ACC set to reinvestigate Padma Bridge graft case
The graft case was closed during the Awami League regime in 2014 after the then ACC cited a lack of evidence
The Anti-Corruption Commission has decided to revive the Padma Bridge graft case which was closed 10 years ago.
The commission made the decision to reinvestigate the case further after reviewing it, ACC Director General Md Akhtar Hossain told the journalists today (31 December).
The graft case was closed during the Awami League regime in 2014 after the then ACC cited a lack of evidence.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
On 17 December 2012, the then ACC deputy director Abdullah Al Zahid filed a case with Banani Police Station on charges of corruption and bribery in the construction of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project, accusing seven.
He said the case was filed against the accused for allegedly arranging the work of the supervisory consultant of the Padma Bridge project to be awarded to one of the bidders, SNC Lavalin International.
Through this, they committed an offence under Section 161 of the Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947, which is a punishable offence
The accused were: Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, former Bridge Division secretary; Kazi Mohammad Ferdous, former superintending engineer (river training) of the Bangladesh Bridge Authority; Riaz Ahmed Zaber, former executive engineer (bridge construction and maintenance division-4 of the Roads and Highways Department; Mohammad Mostafa, deputy managing director of Engineering and Planning Consultant Ltd and the local sub-consultant of SNC-Lavalin; three other SNC officials- Mohammad Ismail, former director of the International Project Division; Ramesh Shah, former vice-president of the International Project Division and Kevin Wallace, former vice-president and general manager of SNC-Lavalin's Energy & Industrial Business Unit.
After a 22-month-long investigation, the ACC submitted its final report to the court in 2014, citing that no evidence of "corruption or conspiracy" was found in the construction of the Padma Bridge.
On 16 October 2014, a Dhaka court accepted the final report submitted by the ACC and acquitted all seven accused.
