Shipping dept surveyor caught red-handed

Hours after the arrest of surveyor of Department of Shipping Mirza Saifur Rahman while he was taking bribe from a service seeker, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday filed a case against him.

A team led by ACC’s Assistant Director Abdul Wadud arrested Saifur from his office around 11:30am. He later filed the case.

According to the case statement, manager of MS Shipping Lines Moniruzzaman has been in charge of a ship, MV Khadizatul Kobra.

On June 7, the ship was damaged after it collided with a sand-laden bulkhead in Narayanganj.

Moniruzzaman requested Saifur to survey the ship.

Saifur asked him to apply online, and sought Tk 2 lakh as bribe, saying otherwise he would not provide the fitness certificate.

Moniruzzman paid relevant fees for the survey on June 23 and applied online the following day. But Saifur kept demanding Tk 2 lakh bribe for the survey.

Moniruzzman filed a written complaint to ACC against Saiful. Following all legal procedures, ACC arrested Saifur red-handed while taking bribe, the case statement says.

“We produced him before a court, which ordered to send him to jail,” said Wadud.

In recent years, the anti-graft watchdog has arrested two chief engineers of the Department of Shipping red-handed while taking bribe.

On April 12, 2018, an ACC team arrested SM Nazmul Huq, chief engineer and surveyor of the Department of Shipping, while he was taking bribe of Tk 5 lakh for approving a ship’s design of Syed Shipping Lines.

Nine months before that, ACC had caught chief engineer AKM Fakhrul Islam in the act of taking Tk 5 lakh for approving design of a ship of Bengal Marine and Engineering Services.

CASE FILED FOR MISAPPROPRIATION OF TK 174CR

ACC yesterday filed a case against 11 persons including former officials of Bangladesh Development Bank Ltd and businessmen for allegedly misappropriating around Tk 174 crore from the bank in 2012, using fake documents.

ACC Deputy Director Gulshan Anowar Prodhan filed the case. The accused are: Chairman of MM Vegetable Oil Products Hefazatur Rahman, its Managing Director Jahir Uddin, Directors Kamal Uddin, Kafil Uddin, Rafiq Uddin, Shafiq Uddin and Jasim Uddin, proprietor of Lucida Trading Mohammad Nasir Uddin Chowdhury, proprietor of Globe International Mahbubul Alam Chowhdury, BDBL’s former senior principal officer Dinesh Chandra Saha and retired general manager Syed Nurur Rahman Kadri.