ACC interrogates 8 Petrobangla officials
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Tuesday quizzed eight officials of Bangladesh Oil, Gas & Minerals Corporation (Petrobangla) to investigate the disappearance of coal from the Barapukuria plant.
ACC Deputy Director and Investigation Officer Shamsul Alam interrogated the officials of the state-owned company at the anti-graft watchdog's Segunbagicha headquarters.
ACC spokesperson Pranab Kumar Bhattachariya confirmed media about the interrogation.
The eight officials are Petrobangla's General Manager (Mine Operation) Abu Taher Md Nuruzzaman Chowdhury, Deputy General Manager AKM Khaledul Islam, Deputy Manager (Maintenance and Operation) Morsheduzzaman, Deputy Manager (Production Management) Habibur Rahman, Deputy Manager (Mine Development) Zahidur Rahman, Deputy Manager (Ventilation Management) Satyendra Nath Varman, Manager (Security) Syed Imam Hasan and Deputy General Manager (Mine Planning Operation) Jobair Ali.
On Jul 24, a case was filed with Dinajpur’s Parbatipur Model Police Station accusing 19 former and incumbent officials of the coalmine.
The case was later transferred to the ACC for the investigation.
On Aug13, the ACC served notice on 32 Petrobangla officials, summoning them to appear on Aug 16, 28, 29 and 30 for interrogation over the “disappearance of coal” from Barapukuria coalmine.
In the first round on Aug 16, the ACC interrogated seven officials of Petrobangla. They were Petrobangla's Deputy General Manager (Maintenance and Contact Management) Md Nazmul Haque, Manager (Coal Handling Management) Md Shoaibur Rahman, Manager (Production Management) Md Sayeed Masud, Deputy Manager (Maintenance and Operation) Md Mahbub Hossain, Assistant Manager (Production Management) Md Moniruzzaman and Assistant Manager (Coal Handling Management) Md Mahbub Rashid and Manager (Store) Md Didarul Kabir.
About 144,000 tonnes of coal, worth over Tk 2 billion, reportedly went missing from the mine yard.
On Jul 22, the disappearance of the coal forced the authorities to shut a 525MW coal-fired thermal power plant next to the mine to halt operations due to a shortage of fuel.
