Court allows ACC to interrogate 7 RHD engineers at jail gate

A Dhaka court yesterday issued an order allowing the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to interrogate seven detained engineers and a construction firm official at the jail gate in connection with a Tk 14 lakh bribery case.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Golam Rabbani passed the order after ACC Deputy Director Mohammad Safiqur Rahman Bhuiyan submitted a petition in this regard.
The accused are additional chief engineers of Roads and Highways Department (RHD) Mozammel Huq (Dhaka division), Mominul Huq (Comilla division), Md Rafiqul Islam (planning, Comilla division) and Abdullahel Kafi (Rangpur), Executive Engineer Md Ali Masud Haider, superintendent engineers AHM Mainul Islam Chowdhury and Tapas Kumar Paul, and Project Coordinator of Reza Construction Mamtaz Uddin.
Members of the task force arrested them with Tk 13,99,000 from a coffee shop in the city on January 10 when they were allegedly distributing bribes among themselves.
Acting on information provided by Reza Construction Director Mahbub Kabir, the task force members caught the RHD officials red-handed at around midnight, sources said.
Reza Construction took up a lease on toll collection activities at Rupsha Bridge and Mahbub offered bribes to the RHD officials for extending the lease period.
According to sources, the RHD officials had demanded Tk 14 lakh from Reza Construction. Its officials asked them to come to the Coffee World to receive the money and also informed the task force of the matter.