Accused RHD official sent to jail

A Dhaka court yesterday sent the executive engineer of Roads and Highways Department to jail after he surrendered before it in a case filed in connection with corruption in the Padma bridge project.
Reaz Ahmed Zaber and six others stand accused of conspiring to commit bribery.
Complying with a High Court directive, Zaber surrendered before the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of Dhaka yesterday morning and sought bail, which the court rejected.
On March 6, Zaber had surrendered before the High Court and sought anticipatory bail in the case. But the court denying him bail asked him to surrender before the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Dhaka, by yesterday.
Earlier, former secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan of the Bridges Division, and Superintendent Engineer Kazi Mohammad Ferdous of Bangladesh Bridge Authority were arrested and later released on bail in this connection.
On December 17 last year, the ACC filed the case with Banani Police Station against Zaber and six others for conspiring to commit bribery.
Meanwhile, Mirza Zahidul Alam, a deputy director of the Anti-Corruption Commission, and also the investigation officer of the case, filed a 10-day remand prayer to quiz Zaber.
He said the accused, while holding an important government office, gathered and smuggled important information out to Canadian firm SNC Lavalin.
Zaber mailed the documents to SNC Lavalin before the tender in which it was selected the lowest bidder.
The court will hear the remand prayer on March 24.