Anti-Corruption Commission to revive Padma Bridge graft case

The Anti-Corruption Commission is set to revive a graft case over the Padma Bridge project which was closed 10 years ago during the Awami League regime after the watchdog cited a lack of evidence.

ACC Director General (Prevention) Md Akhtar Hossain told the media on Tuesday: “The Anti-Corruption Commission has decided to investigate the case further after reviewing the matter.”

On December 17, 2012, ACC Deputy Director Abdullah Al Zahid filed a case with Banani Police Station on charges of corruption and bribery in the construction of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project, accusing seven suspects.

The prime suspect accused in the case was Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, then secretary of the Bridges Division. He was arrested and temporarily suspended from government service but was later released on bail. Later on, the suspension order was revoked and he was reinstated.

Kazi Mohammad Ferdous, superintending engineer (river training) of the Bangladesh Bridge Authority, Riaz Ahmed Zaber, executive engineer (bridge construction and maintenance division-4 of the Roads and Highways Department, and four SNC-Lavalin officials—Mohammad Mostafa, deputy managing director of engineering and planning consultant and local sub-consultant, Mohammad Ismail, former director of the International Project Division, Ramesh Shah, former vice-president of the International Project Division and Kevin Wallace, former vice-president and general manager of SNC-Lavalin’s Energy & Industrial Business Unit.

The case dossier said, “These accused, by conspiring to exchange bribes, arranged for the work of the supervisory consultant of the Padma Bridge project to be awarded to one of the bidders, SNC Lavalin International. Through this, they committed an offence under Section 161 of the Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947, which is a punishable offence.”

If SNC Lavalin had received the work order, “the bribery transaction would have been completed”, it alleged.

After 22 months of investigation, the ACC submitted its final report to the court. The report found that no evidence of “corruption or conspiracy” was found in the construction of the Padma Bridge.

On Oct 16, 2014, a Dhaka court accepted the final report submitted by the ACC and acquitted all seven accused.

Earlier, on Sept 3 of that year, at a press conference at the ACC office, then-Chairman M Badiuzzaman had said: “The case has been registered as the final report due to lack of merit in the case and insufficient information and witnesses in the investigation. The investigation has not yielded any information to take the case forward for more than a year and a half. Therefore, it is not possible to present a charge sheet in the court.”

Then communications minister Syed Abul Hossain was forced to resign due to allegations of involvement in the corruption conspiracy. There were also allegations against former state minister for foreign affairs Abul Hasan Chowdhury. However, then ACC commissioner Md Shahabuddin, who is now the president of Bangladesh, claimed that no evidence of corruption was found against them.

Responding to a question about the decision to revive the case after the fall of the Awami League government, ACC Director General Akhtar said: “The final report was submitted at the time because there was no evidence. However, since some evidence was found in this regard, the commission has decided to investigate the case further.”