Rooppur Power Plant: Key accused in the pillow scam case freed on bail

A contractor for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project has walked out of jail on bail in two cases filed over corruption in purchasing furniture and household items for project officials.

Shahdat Hossain, managing director of Sazin Construction, was freed by the Kashimpur jail authorities in Gazipur on Thursday, a day after Pabna District and Sessions Judge Md Mokbul Ahsan granted him bail on health grounds, said a lawyer of the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Journalists only came to know about his release yesterday.

Md Moyazzem Hossain, deputy director of Pabna ACC, said the case documents were sent to the jail authorities very promptly on Thursday and Shahadat was able to walk out of jail on the same day.

"The ACC head office is monitoring the graft cases. We have come to know that Shahadat has been freed from jail on bail, but we are yet to receive court documents. After receiving the documents, we will take steps according to directives of the ACC head office," Moyazzem told The Daily Star yesterday.

On December 12 last year, the ACC had filed two cases with its Pabna district office against Shahadat and several others on charges of irregularities involving supply of furniture and household items, worth Tk 16 crore, to the power plant project officials. Shahadat was arrested on the same day.

According to several reports, the prices of the various items used to furnish the project's 966 flats for Russian engineers and others were abnormally higher than market prices.

The reports claimed that each pillow was bought for Tk 5,957, and the cost of carrying it to a flat was Tk 760. An electric stove cost Tk 7,747 and the cost of carrying it from the ground floor to the top floor was Tk 6,650. The price of an electric iron was Tk 4,154 and the carrying cost was Tk 2,945.

ACC Deputy Director Moyazzem said 14 people, including two contractors and 12 engineers of the Public Works Department, were accused in four cases in connection with the pillow scam.

All the accused but Shahadat are now behind bars, he added.

Advocate Obaidul Haq, who represented the ACC at the court during the hearing on Shahadat's bail prayer on Wednesday, said they opposed the petition, but the court granted it on health grounds.

Md Al Amim, jailor of Pabna District Jail, said they received the bail order via an e-mail on Thursday noon and forwarded it to the Kashimpur jail authorities the same day.