Tk 3cr graft case against Hasina

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday sued detained former prime minister and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina and six prominent personalities in a Tk 3 crore graft case.
ACC Deputy Director Sabbir Hasan lodged the case with Tejgaon Police Station complaining that Hasina and the six others through mutual understanding and use of influence helped a foreign company and its local partners win a deal for setting up a barge-mount 100MW power plant in Khulna depriving the lowest bidder.
Wartsila Power Development Ltd Consortium and its partners Summit Group and United Group got the deal while Hasina was prime minister .
The case statement said a few days before and after the deal, the three companies paid a Tk 3 crore kickback, which was spent for buying a house with some land in Dhanmondi for Bangabandhu Memorial Trust set up and controlled by Hasina.
The co-accused are former energy secretary Dr Toufiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, former Power Development Board (PDB) chairman Noor Uddin Mahmud Kamal, Managing Director of Summit Industries and Mercantile Corporation Private Ltd Aziz Khan and Director Farid Khan, United Group Chairman Hasan Mahmud Raja and Director Abul Kalam Azad.
The former prime minister had received the kickbacks from the three companies since October 7, 1997 till November 24 that year in exchange for permission to set up the power plant.
This is the fifth case filed against the AL chief, now detained in a sub-jail on the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban premises.
She was arrested on July 16 in connection with a Tk 3 crore extortion case filed by Azam J Chowdhury, managing director of Eastcoast Private Trading Ltd, also a power company.
Tajul Islam Farook, chairman of Westmont Power Company, filed a case on April 9 under non-bailable sections of the penal code accusing Hasina and her personal staff Manu Majumder of extorting Tk 3 crore in 1998 while she was prime minister.
On June 13, Noor Ali, managing director of Unique Group, filed a case with Tejgaon Police Station accusing Hasina, her cousin Sheikh Helaluddin and his wife Rupa Chowdhury of extorting Tk 5 crore for mediating between PDB and his (Noor Ali) firm to finalise a power plant in 1997.
On July 24, police pressed charges against Hasina, her sister Sheikh Rehana and their cousin former minister Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, showing 24 people as prosecution witnesses.
A number of other cases against her have long been pending since the tenure of the immediate past BNP-led coalition government. The cases include frigate and MiG-29 kickback cases.
Our court correspondent reports: A Dhaka court yesterday asked the officer-in-charge (OC) of Tejgaon Police Station to submit probe reports on two extortion cases against Hasina by September 24 and 25.
Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Ashraf Uddin passed the orders after the general recording officer (GRO) placed the cases before the court saying that Tejgaon police are yet to submit probe reports.
Earlier, the same court had repeatedly directed the police to submit the reports but they did not.
The case was filed under sections 161/ 163/ 164/ 165/ 165 (Ka)/ 109 of the Penal Code and section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act of 1947.
CASE STATEMENT
The government approved private sector power generation policy on October 14, 1996.
The PDB invited international tender on October 24 of the same year to commission three barge-mounted power plants at Haripur, Shikalbaha and Khulna within eight to 10 months.
A total of 15 firms submitted 25 tenders, 18 of which were qualified primarily.
New England Power Company consortium proposed lowest tariffs but no deal was made with the company.
Besides, initiatives were taken for negotiation with first, second and third lowest bidders following illegal interferences by the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina and then power secretary Dr Towfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury.
The case statement said ignoring the lowest bidder's tariff rate, which was 4.59 cents per kilowatt hour, the power price has been fixed at 5.10 cents per kilowatt hour for three months and 5.82 cents per kilowatt hour for the rest of the agreement period.
Hasina approved the deal in connivance with other accused to serve the interest of a special quarter in a well-planned way through deception.
Arrangement to smuggle foreign currencies has also been made by allowing Wartsila to import oil that causes a huge loss to the country.
The accused Mohammad Aziz Khan, Mohammad Farid Khan, Hasan Mahmud Raja and Abul Kalam Azad paid Tk three crore out of Tk 6.50 crore in eight cheques/pay orders to Bangabandhu Memorial Trust to purchase a two-storey building and 19.11 kathas of land in Dhanmondi for the trust.
The cheques/pay orders were issued between October 7, 1997 and November 24 of the same year. The accused paid the money on behalf of the owners of Wartsila and it's local business partners Summit group and United group.