Barapukuria coal scam: 23 including former MDs charged

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Sunday pressed charges against 23 officials of Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Ltd, including seven former managing directors.

The case was filed over misappropriation of over Tk 243.28 crore.

In the charge sheet, five were acquitted among the 19 accused in the case while nine others were shown accused following investigation into disappearance of over 1.43 lakh tonnes of coal from the BCMCL.

Md Anisur Rahman, manager (admin) of the coal mining company filed the case accusing 19 people with Parbatipur Police Station in Dinajpur on July 24 last year in connection with disappearance of the coal.

According to the case statement, the accused officials, through mutual understanding, had caused over 1.43 lakh tonnes of coal disappear. The estimated market price of the coal is over Tk 243,28,82,501.84, which the officials allegedly misappropriated between January 2006 and July 19, 2018.

The charge sheeted officials are: Former managing directors of the company Md Mahbubur Rahman, Md Abdul Aziz Khan, Engineer Khurshidul Hasan, engineer Kamruzzaman, Md Aminuzzaman, Engineer SM Nurul  Aurangzeb; former MD and general manager (mine operations) Engineer Habib Uddin Ahammad; former GM (administration) Md Shariful Alam; former GM (admin) Md Abul Kashem Prodhaniya; former GM (mine operations) Abu Taher Md Nur-uz-Zaman Chowdhury; Manager (security Masudur Rahman Howlader; Manager (maintenance and operation) Md Arifur Rahman; Manager (security) Syed Iman Hasan; Assistant Manager (coal handling management) Muhammad Khalilur Rahman; Asst Manager (maintenance and operation) Md Morsheduzzaman; Asst Manager (production management) Md Habibur Rahman; Asst Manager (mine development) Md Jahedur Rahman; Asst Manager (ventilation management) Satyendra Nath Barman; Asst Manager (PM) Md Moniruzzaman; Manager (coal handling management) Md Shoebur Rahman; Assistant General Manager (store department) AKM Khaledul Islam, now suspended; Manager (production management) Ashok Kumar Haldar; and AGM (mine planning and development) Md Zobayer Ali.

The ACC, however, dropped names of five people from the case including Manager (exploration) Mosharraf Hossain Sarkar, Manager (design, construction and maintenance) Zahidul Islam, Deputy Manager (safety management) Ekramul Haque, Former General Manager (finance and accounts) Abdul Mannan Patwari, and General Manager (finance and accounts) Gopal Chandra Saha.

On July 22, 2018, the Barapukuria thermal power plant in Dinajpur was shut down, due to an acute shortage of coal after 142,000 tons of coal disappeared from the plant, causing power shortages in the northern region of the country.

Mohammad Anisur Rahman, administration manager of BCMCL, filed the case with Parbatipur Model police station on July 24, 2018, against the 19 BCMCL officials under sections 5(2) and 409 of the Anti Corruption Commission Act.

Kamruzzaman