PDB ex-chief engr sent to jail

A Dhaka court yesterday sent a former chief engineer of Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) to jail after he surrendered before it, seeking bail in two cases filed for alleged corruption.

Metropolitan Magistrate Kazi Kamrul Islam passed the order after the former PDB engineer, Shahidul Alam, accompanied by his lawyer, surrendered before it.

On August 25 last year, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed two cases -- one for acquiring illegal wealth and the other for laundering Tk 1.70 crore -- with Kalabagan and Ramna police stations against Shahidul.      

His lawyer yesterday said his client had secured six weeks' ad-interim bail from the High Court on November 6 in 2017 when the HC also directed him to appear before the Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court of Dhaka on the expiry of the ad-interim bail.

On December 27 the same year, Shahidul secured a bail till March 1 this year. As he failed to appear before the sessions court before the expiry of the bail, it directed the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's (CMM) Court to issue arrest warrants against him.

His client was seeking bail yesterday as the Dhaka CMM court issued arrest warrants on March 14 against Shahidul in the cases, the lawyer argued.

In the first case filed with Ramna Police Station, the ACC found that Shahidul acquired an unusual amount of wealth illegally while he was working at PDB, according to the prosecution.

The ACC, after scrutinizing his wealth report submitted to it, found that Shahidul accumulated illegal wealth worth over Tk 24 lakh that he had not mentioned in his wealth statement.

In the statement of the other case filed with Kalabagan Police Station, it is mentioned that Shahidul opened different bank accounts under false names and there he deposited Tk 1.80 crore that he made illegally.

He later withdrew Tk 1.7 crore from the accounts and transferred the amount to bank accounts belonging to other people.